What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

Changed:I. whereas the assets of 2893 58 individuals and 7095 entities directly involved in the repression of the Syrian people are subject to EU sanctions; whereas as a result of Russia’s continued obstruction in the UN Security Council, only one crossing point is ensured for the delivery of international humanitarian aid between Türkiye and the areas not controlled by the regime in Syria; whereas since 2014 the Bab-al Hawa crossing has been used for deliveries of cross-border relief from Türkiye to Syria with the authorisation of the UN Security Council; whereas Russia has frequently obstructed the renewal of this authorisation in the UN Security Council and ultimately vetoed the authorisation for the aid corridor in July 2023, for which reason Bab-al Hawa remained closed; whereas in September 2023, as a result of negotiations between UN agencies, the Syrian regime, and Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham, the dominant armed group in Idlib, aid deliveries through Bab al-Hawa resumed and the aid corridors Bab al-Salam and Al-Rai border crossings, that the Syrian regime agreed to open following the devastating earthquake in February 2023, were extended for another three months; whereas the conditions under which the Syrian regime and Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham authorised the UN to resume aid deliveries through the three border crossings are unknown; whereas renowned international humanitarian law experts question whether cross-border UN aid requires UN Security Council authorisation;

Changed:K. whereas the EU and its Member States have been the largest donors to the people affected by the conflict since 2011, contributing EUR 30 billion; whereas the European aid pledged at the Brussels Conference in June 2023 amounts to EUR 3.83,8 billion out of a total of EUR 5.65,6 billion; whereas the EU and the Member States provided emergency assistance during the earthquake in Syria, and on 23 February 2023 the EU decided on a temporary exemption from sanctions on humanitarian grounds to facilitate the delivery of aid to the victims; whereas the UN warns that 90 % of the Syrian population is living below the poverty line, with many Syrians now eking out an existence in conditions that are even worse than those that existed during the years of conflict; whereas the World Food Programme estimates that 12.412,4 million Syrians are suffering from food insecurity, representing nearly 60 % of the population; whereas the responsibility for the current dire situation lies mainly with the Assad regime;

Changed:N. whereas the Syrian regime’s destruction and neglect of water sources and the healthcare system led to the outbreak of a country-wide cholera epidemic in August 2022 which is still ongoing; whereas public education is under pressure in Syria and in the countries hosting Syrian refugees, with around half of Syria’s school-aged population (nearly 2.42,4 million pupils) not receiving any form of education, resulting in many children suffering from the psycho-social impacts of prolonged conflict and displacement; whereas according to UNESCO only around half of young people aged 15-24 in Syria meet the minimum expected competency levels in literacy, numeracy and life skills;

Added:O. whereas the Syrian regime, through ethnic cleansing, conducted a brutal campaign to change the country’s demographic makeup; whereas Christians in Syria made up about 10 % of the pre-war Syrian population, totalling 2,2 million people; whereas the brutality of the war caused a mass exodus of Christians, so that now only about 640 000 remain; whereas, in addition to the Syrian regime, Christians in the country have been persecuted by ISIS and other Islamist militias; whereas the Assad regime has attempted to project an image as a secular protector of Christians in Syria, but the regime has reportedly intentionally destroyed churches and detained at least hundreds of Christian citizens; whereas the regime, with the active support of the Russian Federation, besieged and completely decimated Aleppo, the city with the largest Christian population in the country; whereas the country was ranked as the 12th most difficult place in the world to be Christian;

Changed:(c) oppose any normalisation of relations with the Assad regime unless there are profound and verifiable developments in the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 (2015), including the release of political prisoners, informing the families of the victims about the fate of missing persons and victims of enforced disappearance, and the cessation of any attacks on or obstacles to humanitarian aid; call on EU Member States to refrain from measures weakening or undermining the common EU position on Syria; welcome the adoption of the Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act by the US House of Representatives and encourage the US Senate to pursue the legislative process towards its enactment; stress that despite the sovereign decision of some Arab states to readmit Syria to the Arab League, the Syrian regime has not given any indication that it wants to combat drug trafficking, a problem originating in Syria but which affects the whole region; condemn the stranglehold of the Assad family and its allies, including Hezbollah, on the market for the drug Captagon, which is estimated to be worth USD 57 billion; note that the brother of Bashar Al-Assad, Maher Al-Assad, commands the army unit responsible for facilitating the drug’s production; support an EU coordinated security response to prevent the EU being used as a trans-shipment zone for Captagon produced in Syria and Lebanon;

Changed:(k) condemn the launch of rockets by Syrian forces from Syrian territory towards Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan heights, and the sending of an unarmed drone to the north of Israel; condemn the repeated and successful attempts by Hezbollah to receive Iranian weapons through Syrian territory; condemn the Assad regime’s permissive attitude towards Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, especially with regard to facilitation efforts in the Iraq conflict, as it has fed the growth of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and affiliated terrorist networks inside Syria;

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Changed:(n) stress that the fight against impunity in Syria is a prerequisite for any future resolution of the ongoing crisis, as well as a moral and political imperative for Europe and the international community; welcome the judicial progress made by the Franco-German Joint Investigation Team regarding the 11 000 bodies of torture victims identified in the César report, the suspension of Syria from the International Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; welcome the issuance of international arrest warrants against Bashar Al-Assad, his brother Maher Al-Assad and two generals, by French courts in November 2023, for crimes against humanity in relation to attacks with chemical weapons against civilians; welcome the ICJ order directing Syria to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of torture and other abuses after the Netherlands and Canada filed a case regarding Syria’s violation of the international Convention against Torture; welcome also the progress made in Germany, France and Sweden in bringing Syrian criminals to justice, such as through the criminal trials in Koblenz and Frankfurt; welcome the arrest and imprisonment, in December 2023, January 2024 and February 2024, of Syrian paramilitary leaders with links to the Assad regime in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture; encourage all EU Member States to implement universal jurisdiction, where applicable to the respective constitutional order; support attempts to bring the leadership of the Syrian regime to justice; call for the pooling of expertise and interpreters among the judicial and police authorities, and for a public prosecutor for crimes against humanity to be appointed in each Member State; call on EU Member States to establish specialised war crime units within law enforcement and prosecution services, in those cases where they do not already exist, and ensure they are adequately resourced; encourage the Member States to pay particular attention to, and prevent, the activities of Syrian intelligence services and their influence on the Syrian diaspora, including the protection of witnesses; call for European scholarships to be specifically allocated to Syrians seeking legal training in the fight against impunity;

Added:(p) welcome the decision of the Council of 22 January 2024 to add six business people close to the Assad family and five companies to the EU sanctions list for their involvement in the transfer of Syrian regime mercenaries, arms trading, drug trafficking or money laundering to support the Syrian regime;

Changed:(p)(q) urge the international community, at the 2024 Brussels Conference, to urgently increase its humanitarian assistance to the 15.315,3 million Syrians who depend on it on a daily basis; express their gravest concern about the decision taken by the UN World Food Programme to suspend its food assistance from January 2024 due to a funding shortfall, which until then had been benefiting 3,2 million people in Syria daily; insist on access to clean water, including drinking water, sanitary water and water for agricultural purposes, formal education, also for girls and women, energy supply, affordable motor fuels, education and long-term budget support tailored to women’s needs; focus on directing humanitarian aid especially towards clean water, affordable energy, heating, healthcare and health products; call on the Commission and the Member States to step up efforts to support the work of local civil society and refugee-led organisations; stress the importance for aid agencies of reinforcing accountability to the beneficiaries of assistance and act on their feedback and needs, in line with the principle of ‘accountability to affected populations’; point out that the EU is the biggest contributor in this regard; welcome the continued efforts of Lebanon, Jordan, Türkiye and Iraq to host six million refugees while facing difficult economic conditions; remind these countries of their obligation to adhere to international law in this regard; reiterate the need to guarantee the status of refugees, notably in the main host countries of Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, and to refrain from any discrimination towards minorities; recognise the huge cultural heritage of Syria as a major part of the world’s cultural heritage and as a source of solutions to some of the country’s problems; recognise Aramaic as an endangered minority language, since it is only spoken by about 100 000 people in Syria, while in Europe this number is as high as 500 000 people;

Changed:(q)(r) strongly condemn Russia’s countless vetoes against delivering aid to the people in the north of Syria, specifically its veto on the renewal of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2672 (2023), thereby not allowing an extension of humanitarian access through Bab al-Hawa; denounce once again Russia’s attempts to tarnish the image of the ‘White Helmets’ (Syrian civil defence); stress that the White Helmets play a significant role in the rescue of Syrian civilians; commend the work of journalists, bloggers and individuals as well as organisations, such as the White Helmets, who, despite the brutality of the regime, continue to carry out their work in the country, informing the international community, supporting victims on the ground and maintaining their focus on the future of the country; note the government’s decision to grant further access to UN humanitarian agencies and partners through the Bab al-Hawa corridor until 13 JanuaryJuly 2024,2024; anddeplore the absence of a decision extending access through Bab al-Salam and al-Raial-Rai, which had previously been renewed until 13 February 2024; remind all parties responsible of the absolute need to keep these accesses open; urge the Commission and the Member States to, in parallel with robust diplomatic action at the level of the UN Security Council, obtain the continued operation of the border crossings of Bab al-Hawa, Bab al-Salaam and al-Rai, for at least 12 months; explore the possibility of also channelling resources through the recently established ‘Aid Fund for Northern Syria’; condemn the systematic attempts by the Syrian regime to divert international humanitarian aid and transfer it to militias, and the regime’s manipulation of exchange rates in order to appropriate the majority of the aid destined for the territories under its control;