2024-07-22 14:40:51
Eight countries, including Austria, want a new way of dealing with the country of civil war.
The war in Ukraine has been a fixed item on the agenda at meetings of EU foreign affairs ministers for almost two and a half years. The same applies to the Middle East conflict after Hamas attacks Israel in October 2023. Austria, along with Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Republic of Czechia, trying to give more thought to a conflict that has been simmering for much longer in EU foreign policy: the civil war in Syria. The eight countries submitted a corresponding working paper as a basis for discussion at the Council meeting on Monday in Brussels.
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP), who did not travel to Brussels for the meeting, justified the initiative by saying that EU policy in Syria had not “aged well” after 13 years of conflict. “As bitter as it is: the regime of ruler Assad is firmly in the saddle – also with the help of Iran and Russia, the Syrian opposition is fragmented, non-existent or in exile,” said Schallenberg. While the population is suffering from the humanitarian disaster, the regime is consolidating its power and resetting its relations with the Arab world. The EU must respond to this. “It is high time we advance our Syria policy – without blinders and without any restrictions on thinking.”
The demand is aimed at the head of EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, “to carry out a fundamental review of the EU’s strategy for Syria”. The burden on neighboring countries “should be addressed more urgently, as it increases other internal political tensions in those countries and leads to increased instability and increased refugee flows into Europe.” Schallenberg also refers to this in a letter to his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani: “We are feeling these impacts far beyond the Middle East, in Italy, Austria and the rest of Europe as well,” he says. Although the suffering of people is a lucrative business for smuggling gangs, further migration movements in Europe could overburden the asylum systems. The EU should, therefore, work towards improving the situation in Syria so that “refugees from Syria can be returned safely, voluntarily and with dignity”.
According to a report from Statistics Austria on migration and integration, there were around 95,000 Syrians in Austria at the beginning of the year – ten years ago there were still 4,000 the ongoing refugee movements mentioned by the ministers are shown in the numbers here: in 2022 and in 2023 over 41,000 Syrians applied for asylum in Austria.
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