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Berlin is leading a push for the European Union to ease Assad-era sanctions on Syria as part of a western drive to support the country’s political transition and aid reconstruction after 13 years of devastating civil war.
German officials circulated two proposal documents among EU capitals shortly before Christmas with suggestions for key areas where bloc penalties against the country could be lifted, according to two people familiar with the matter.
They proposed that measures be eased in exchange for the country’s new leadership implementing certain reforms in a bid to retain some leverage over its de facto leader, Islamist former militant Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Berlin’s intention is to get support for its approach — which comes after the US on Monday issued its own set of limited sanctions exemptions — from the EU’s other 26 member states at a meeting of bloc foreign ministers in Brussels on January 27.
The documents detail how the EU could gradually lift restrictions imposed on Damascus in exchange for positive steps on social issues including protection of minorities and women’s rights, and ensuring non-proliferation of weapons, according to one of the people. The German foreign ministry declined to comment.
The proposals, which come amid a flurry of visits by western diplomats to Damascus in recent weeks, include easing restrictions on the banking sector to facilitate the flow of funds into the country, and on the energy sector to help tackle severe power outages.
They would also seek to alleviate sanctions on air transport and lift curbs on moving private assets that currently impede exiled Syrians who want to return home from taking a car with them or opening a bank account.
The US Treasury’s six-month waiver allows certain transactions with the Syrian government, along with some energy payments and personal remittances. The move was intended “to help ensure that sanctions do not impede essential services and continuity of governance functions across Syria, including the provision of electricity, energy, water, and sanitation”, the Treasury said.
One person familiar with the EU discussions said that, like Washington, the bloc could make any easing of sanctions temporary to ensure that it could be reversed if necessary.
It was not yet clear if there was unanimous support among the EU’s 27 member states for the sanctions easing, one official involved in the discussions said, with some capitals still calling for a full assessment of the new Damascus administration and how it will govern.
Many western officials remain cautious about Sharaa, whose Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led the offensive that toppled former president Bashar al-Assad. He has indicated that he supports the creation of an inclusive government that would encompass the country’s many ethnic and religious minorities.
But the former militant, who once fought for Isis in Iraq, has filled ministries with former officials from the HTS-backed de facto government of Idlib, which ruled the north-western corner of Syria for years before Assad was ousted. The EU, alongside the UN and others, designates HTS as a terrorist organisation.
German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on a visit to Damascus last week that the EU wanted to support Syria in a peaceful and inclusive transition. But the Green party politician — whose visit triggered controversy back home after Sharaa declined to shake her hand — said that Europe “of course would not fund the Islamification of a society”.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers last month that the bloc had to decide if it was “ready to adapt our sanctions policy when we see positive steps, not words but actual steps and deeds from the new leadership of Syria”.
“We are 27 democracies and this takes time. But we need to have the plan ready when we see the steps, then we also are ready to act positively in this regard,” Kallas added.
