The EU High Representative Federica Mogherini addressed the European Parliament yesterday during MEPs debate on the Syria Strategy, recently adopted by the Commission, and means to tackle the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII. “I strongly believe that the fact that we are not a military player in the Syrian crisis makes us stronger in the political context of trying to solve the problem and the crisis there,” she said.

“In the Strategy we outlined a clear set of objectives: seeking a political solution to the conflict within the UN framework, supporting the opposition – including the High Negotiation Committee – to develop their proposal for a meaningful and inclusive transition, and in parallel, working to save lives, to protect human rights, to strengthen civil society and the role of women,” she underlined, and “to promote accountability for those responsible of war crimes”.

Mogherini reminded that EU is the first humanitarian donor to the region and last month hosted the major Ministerial conference on Syria in Brussels, together with the Secretary General of the United Nations. “We brought together 80 delegations from countries and international organisations from the region and the entire world, raising more than 9 billion euros until 2020, including 5.6 billion euros for 2017 alone,” she stressed

She praised the diplomatic efforts to bring the conflict to an end put in place by the international community, as the Astana meetings, and reiterated the EU strong support to the UN led talks in Geneva.

“All different initiatives now have the big responsibility to converge towards Geneva, to help the Syrians build peace and find their own path towards national reconciliation. And there are no shortcuts for that. We have seen it for six years: Geneva, the UN process, the multilateral framework, these intra-Syrian talks is and must remain the only way to transition,” she concluded.

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Press release

Remarks by High Representative Mogherini on the EU Strategy on Syria during the plenary session of the European Parliament

Council conclusions on Syria (03/04/2017)

“Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region” Conference webpage

EEAS webpage on EU actions related to the Syria crisis.

Factsheet: The EU and the crisis in Syria