The foreign ministers of EU countries have made the decision to suspend a number of strict sanctions against Syria to assist the country in its economic recovery and reconstruction following nearly 14 years of civil war.
The Council has removed five financial institutions ("Industrial Bank," "People's Credit Bank," "Savings Bank," "Agricultural Cooperative Bank," and "Syrian Arab Airlines") from the list of organizations subject to asset freezes and economic resource restrictions, allowing for the provision of funds and economic resources to the Central Bank of Syria.
The EU has also suspended sectoral measures in the oil, gas, electricity, and transport sectors and introduced exceptions to the ban on banking relations between Syrian banks and financial institutions in the European Union to facilitate transactions for humanitarian purposes and for recovery, as well as in the energy and transport sectors.
The bloc will monitor the situation in the country to ensure that the suspension of sanctions remains appropriate. Josep Borrell, the EU's chief diplomat, emphasized that "if things do not go as planned, we are also ready to reinstate the sanctions."
"Any government must be inclusive and consider all the various groups present in Syria," she stated.
Most EU sanctions were imposed following Bashar al-Assad's brutal suppression of Syrian protests in 2011, including extensive restrictions on trade, financial operations, and key sectors such as energy and transportation.
The sanctions have led to the collapse of economic relations between the European Union and Syria: in 2023, trade volumes amounted to 396 million euros.
Assad's regime was overthrown last December by the Islamist group "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" (HTS), which has since called for the lifting of extensive sanctions to assist the war-torn country's economy.
There have also been calls to remove HTS and its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa from international terrorist lists; however, the Council decided to maintain such lists regarding Assad's regime, as well as those related to arms trade, dual-use goods, the chemical weapons sector, and drug trafficking.
The EU blacklist, updated in November, includes 318 individuals and 86 entities. All of them are subject to asset freezes and travel bans.
According to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line, and at least 16.5 million people in Syria depend on humanitarian assistance in some form.
Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that extensive sanctions imposed by the EU, the US, and the UK on Syria hinder the country’s economic recovery and deny millions of Syrians access to essential services such as electricity, healthcare, water supply, and education.
"Instead of using broad sectoral sanctions as leverage to achieve changing political goals, Western governments must recognize that they are causing direct harm to the civilian population and take meaningful steps to lift restrictions that impede access to basic rights," stated Hiba Zayadin, a senior Syria researcher at HRW.
"A consistent approach consisting of temporary exceptions and limited rollbacks is insufficient. Sanctions that harm civilians must be lifted immediately, not refined," Zayadin added.