The Council of the European Union announced that the first high-level political dialogue between the European Union and Syria will be held in Brussels on May 11.
The conference will be co-chaired by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas and Syrian Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Asaad al-Shaibani.
According to the council, the dialogue represents an opportunity to make progress toward normalizing relations between the two sides and to assess areas for cooperation.
This includes, in particular, EU support for Syria’s transitional authorities’ efforts to achieve stability, promote social and economic recovery, and advance an inclusive political transition, according to the EU.
EU Ambassador to the United States Jovita Neliupšienė, during her meeting with Syria’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, Mohammad Qanatari, emphasized the importance of exchanging views ahead of the first high-level political dialogue between the European Union and Syria.
Neliupšienė stressed that the European Union supports a stable, inclusive, and peaceful future for the Syrian people.
Rights Demands, More For More
Human Rights Watch sent a letter ahead of the political dialogue between the European Union and Syria.
In its letter, the organization said the European Union should use its leverage and adopt a “more for more” approach, linking closer EU-Syria ties to real progress on human rights.
The organization called on the European Commission and the Council to ensure that the EU’s public and private messages to the Syrian authorities, during the upcoming political dialogue and afterward, emphasize the need to make tangible progress in the following key areas:
- Justice and accountability:
- Establish independent, impartial, and effective justice mechanisms to provide redress for victims and survivors of serious international crimes committed by all parties during and after the Syrian conflict, including expanding the legal mandate of the National Commission for Transitional Justice to cover crimes committed by all sides.
- Ensure full and unrestricted access to, and cooperation with, international investigative bodies, including the United Nations International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI), and the Independent Institution on Missing Persons (IIMP).
- Accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
- Implement comprehensive reform of Syria’s criminal justice system to ensure it complies with human rights standards and fair trial guarantees, including abolishing the death penalty. Regarding accountability for serious international crimes, these crimes should be incorporated into domestic law, and effective accountability mechanisms should be provided, including the principle of command responsibility, to allow serious prosecutions while ensuring witness protection and victim participation.
- Ensure that accountability efforts are based on victims’ rights and needs, while providing real and sustainable opportunities for them, along with affected communities and experts, to participate in all stages of accountability processes, from design through implementation.
- Security sector reform:
- Ensure impartial investigations into the atrocities that occurred in March and July 2025 in the coastal areas and in Suwayda governorate (southern Syria), and hold those responsible for violations from all parties accountable, including by prosecuting military commanders and senior officials who ordered violations or bear responsibility for them under the principle of command responsibility for war crimes.
- Implement comprehensive security sector reform in line with international human rights standards, ensuring civilian oversight, command responsibility, and rigorous vetting to remove individuals responsible for violations.
- The European Union should seek to provide technical and financial assistance to ensure that the new security forces protect civilians and respect the rule of law, and to support an independent judiciary capable of ensuring the legality of detention and the lawful treatment of all detainees.
- Inclusive participation in the transition and guarantees for basic rights:
- Ensure the participation of all sectors of Syrian society in shaping the country’s future.
- Remove obstacles to civil society participation, including by simplifying registration requirements and ensuring a safe environment for organizations to operate, while protecting them from any reprisals for criticizing the authorities.
- Adopt and implement human rights standards related to fundamental rights and freedoms for all, and freedom from discrimination, including guaranteeing freedom of movement, assembly, and expression, and refraining from arbitrary arrests or any other form of repression.
Reconstruction and recovery:
The European Union should continue providing financial and technical support to Syria in its efforts to rebuild its economy, while strictly upholding a zero-tolerance policy toward any form of abuse or discrimination. To achieve this, such support must be tied to effective guarantees ensuring that it is not used in a discriminatory manner and does not contribute in any way to entrenching discriminatory practices by the authorities, in a way that ensures the promotion and protection of economic and social rights.
Warnings Over Israel’s Plans in the Golan
In its letter, the organization also addressed Israel’s plan, announced in April 2026, to transfer thousands of Israeli civilians to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, considering it a clear indication of intent to commit further war crimes.
The organization called on the European Union to take effective measures to pressure Israeli authorities to reverse these plans, work to dismantle existing settlements, and end violations in areas of southern Syria under its control.
According to the organization, these violations include the forcible displacement of residents, the confiscation and demolition of homes, depriving residents of their livelihoods, as well as the unlawful transfer of Syrian detainees into Israel.
It also stressed the need to impose targeted sanctions on those responsible for these violations, and to ban trade and economic activities linked to illegal settlements, including those established in the occupied Golan Heights. It also called on EU states to suspend any military support that could facilitate violations of human rights and international law.
At the end of its letter, the organization urged EU leaders to refrain from engaging in areas of cooperation that do not meet human rights standards, or from downplaying the scale of Syria’s continuing economic, security, and human rights challenges to justify, promote, or facilitate premature refugee returns.
It said major obstacles still prevent safe, dignified, and sustainable returns, including continued security concerns, a real and volatile risk of renewed violence, and the fact that large parts of the country, devastated by war, remain uninhabitable.
Resumption of Relations
The European Commission had proposed the full resumption of the EU-Syria Cooperation Agreement, marking a new step in relations between the two sides.
The measure followed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s announcement in January of the new framework for cooperation between the European Union and Syria.
This would be done by intensifying EU support for a peaceful and inclusive Syrian-led transition, meeting humanitarian needs, and contributing to efforts aimed at achieving economic recovery.
The EU-Syria Cooperation Agreement was partially suspended in 2011 in response to the systematic repression and grave human rights violations committed by the Assad regime.
The cooperation agreement has formed the framework governing cooperation between the European Union and Syria since 1978, supporting Syria’s economic and social development and strengthening trade relations based on fairness and legitimacy.
The agreement also provides for the abolition of customs duties imposed on EU imports of most industrial products of Syrian origin, and prohibits either side from imposing quantitative restrictions.
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