27
Feb
2024
Watch
Recommendation to the Council, the Commission and the EEAS on the situation in Syria (debate)
Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, I want to explicitly thank Nathalie Loiseau for her excellent work as a rapporteur on this Syria report, which is crucial and important for the security also of the Europeans, the security of the world and, of course, the future of the people of Syria. I have visited Damascus and the greater Damascus region two years ago. Immediately after that, I have talked to Nathalie Loiseau in order to implement especially the recommendations of international organisations active on the ground in Syria, especially United Nations organisations such as FAO or the Red Cross and others. I had the privilege to talk to – on site – those who had a clear impression on how humanitarian aid works and how it would not work. It works locally, it works regionally, it works when it addresses small and middle-sized enterprises and entities. It works when it addresses civil society and especially the education sector. This is also something we have implemented into this very report of the European Parliament on Syria. Secondly, I want to emphasise that the vast majority of refugees around the world are today Syrian refugees and the vast majority of them – around 80%, as experts tell us – want to go home. They would wish to go home and to have proper dwelling in their very home country, Syria, again, but they are reluctant to do so because they are afraid of violence due to the various tensions within society. Of course, on top of these threats is the Assad regime itself. It’s a threat to the world, it’s a threat to the region, it’s aligning with the ones who are threatening Europe such as Russia and others. This is also what the report obviously addresses, including, among final remarks of the report, also, the Aramaic language, which is a minority language – it’s about to disappear on this planet. We want to preserve the Aramaic language, and we want to have a proper, stable Syria for the future.