{"id":452878,"date":"2026-05-11T12:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T10:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/11\/siria-lue-ripristina-laccordo-di-cooperazione-sospeso-nel-2011\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:20:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:20:37","slug":"eu-reinstates-cooperation-agreement-with-syria-suspended-in-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/11\/eu-reinstates-cooperation-agreement-with-syria-suspended-in-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"EU reinstates cooperation agreement with Syria suspended in 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The Council of the European Union has restored the full application of the <\/span>EU-Syria Cooperation Agreement<\/a><\/span>. The agreement dates back to 1977 and provides the framework for economic and trade relations between the parties. “This is a historic day,” commented Dubravka \u0160uica<\/strong>, the Commissioner for the Mediterranean, at a press briefing today (11 May). “Syria has the EU\u2019s support: we want to hear what its priorities are and understand how we can best support it<\/strong>,” \u0160uica added. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement was partiallly suspended in 2011 and extended in 2012, due to human rights violations committed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad<\/strong>. The suspension affected specific trade provisions of the agreement, in particular those removing quantitative restrictions on imports of certain Syrian products, such as oil and its derivatives, gold, precious metals, and diamonds. According to the Council, with the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, and the subsequent decisions to lift EU economic sanctions against Syria in May 2025 \u2013 with the exception of those based on security grounds \u2013 the conditions that had justified the suspension no longer apply. The reinstatement of the agreement is the next step: Syria now falls within the ordinary legal framework governing trade and cooperation relations with the EU. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The EU has therefore opened a new chapter in its relations with Damascus by initiating a dialogue with the transitional authorities. This morning, the Syria Partnership Coordination Forum held a meeting, chaired by \u0160uica and the Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani. “Reconstruction on the ground has already begun,” Al-Shaibani stated at the start of his address. On the method, the position is clear. <\/span>The recovery process must be led by Syrian institutions<\/strong>, “without the government\u2019s authority being bypassed,” the minister said. The priorities are \u201cinfrastructure \u2013 energy, transport, and basic services such as healthcare and education.\u201d Syria, al-Shaibani added, is aiming for \u201ctransparent management of funds, the consolidation of state institutions as a precondition for any reconstruction, and a long-term vision for the country, based on human capital and national leadership.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The EU, however, aims to see Syria play an active role in the Mediterranean<\/strong>. “It is time for action,” said Commissioner \u0160uica, who announced that “a hub will soon be operational \u2013 launched <\/span>with funding of \u20ac15 million<\/a><\/span> \u2013 for European technical assistance, designed to transfer skills and knowledge to Syrian institutions.” Commissioner \u0160uica also announced an EU contribution of \u20ac14 million for the reconstruction of Al-Rastan Hospital in Homs. The initiative is part of the \u20ac175 million socio-economic recovery package announced by the Commissioner during her June 2025 visit to Damascus. The EU is working on a further allocation of \u20ac280 million for 2026 and 2027: all these funds form part of the overall \u20ac620 million package announced by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in January 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 Meanwhile, on 5 May, Human Rights Watch (HRW) sent a letter<\/a> to High Representative Kallas and Commissioner \u0160uica, calling on the EU to adopt a \u2018more for more\u2019 approach, linking the strengthening of relations with Damascus to concrete and measurable progress on justice and security. The organisation expressed concern that the proposal to reinstate the cooperation agreement did not contain explicit references to outstanding human rights challenges<\/strong>. On the issue of refugees, HRW warned that promoting or facilitating returns to Syria without conditions permitting it would be premature. On this issue, during the press briefing, Commissioner \u0160uica stated that \u201cthe EU is not pushing anyone to leave; return is possible if it takes place in a safe, dignified and voluntary manner.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The suspension of the agreement had come into force in response to the human\u2011rights violations committed by Bashar al\u2011Assad\u2019s regime and had reinstated quantitative restrictions on imports of certain Syrian products, such as oil and its derivatives, gold, precious metals and diamonds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7911,"featured_media":442692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25815,34035,26453,26001,27992,30941,33394],"class_list":["post-452878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-assad","tag-cooperation-en","tag-council-en","tag-siria-en","tag-relations-commercial-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452879,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452878\/revisions\/452879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}