WRITTEN QUESTION P-1839/03 by Ilka Schröder (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. EU relations with Syria and association agreement.
Date: 2003-05-26
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Israel, Syria, association agreement (EU), establishment of peace, foreign policy, negotiation of an agreement (EU), political status, settlement of disputes, terrorism

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/389

Singapore has also made a proposal to enter into negotiations on a FTA with the Union. Singapore, as a
trading nation with a very small domestic market,
is widely recognised to be one of the most open
economies in the world, with very few existing barriers to trade. Negotiating any FTA requires substantial
resources and effort, which must be justified in terms of the associated political and economic benefits.
This would be true even for a country such as Singapore, whose lack of an agricultural sector could be
expected to facilitate certain areas of negotiations.

In this instance, in order to have a clearer understanding of the possible benefits to the Union from such
an agreement, in terms of specific market access barriers or other regulatory practices in Singapore which
are of the greatest importance to European business, the Commission requested several European business
organisations to collect information from their members. Until now, neither Singapore nor interested
parties in Europe have presented convincing evidence that the Union would draw any substantial benefit
from a FTA with Singapore or that an agreement would promote a stronger trade and economic
relationship with the other countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) or elsewhere
in the region. Furthermore, the Union business sector has yet to indicate that there are areas where it feels
that Singapore’s bilateral FTAs have placed it at a disadvantage.

At this time, the Commission has not made any proposal (cid:1) tentative or otherwise (cid:1) of a FTA to
Singapore, nor has it stated any specific conditions or preconditions for a potential future FTA. The
Commission is developing other avenues besides a Free Trade Agreement to enhance or trade and
investment relations with ASEAN as a whole, by developing more effective co-operation on regulatory
issues.

(2004/C 78 E/0412)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1839/03

by Ilka Schröder (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: EU relations with Syria and association agreement

(26 May 2003)

Given that the EU is Syria’s most important trading partner and that EU-Syria negotiations on the
conclusion of an association agreement, most recently in March 2003, are making further headway, how
does the Commission view the possible successful conclusion of such an agreement in view of Syria’s
provision of infrastructure support for the PFLP-GC, PFLP, Hamas and Islamic Jihad organisations? Is the
Commission’s policy to be taken as a statement opposing the European Council’s list of
terrorist
organisations, which includes the organisations referred to? During the negotiations, has Syria’s support for
those organisations and for Hizbollah in Lebanon been raised? Given the Syrian President’s restatement, as
recently as this month, of continued support for Hizbollah, does the Commission view continued support
and encouragement of organisations whose policy is to murder Israeli civilians as a reason for the
conclusion of an association agreement not to go ahead? Is the Commission considering inducing Syria to
end its support for those organisations? How does the Commission view the continued deployment of
Syrian troops in Lebanon and their support for Hizbollah, which is continuing to mount attacks on Israeli
territory, though the UN has officially established that, in withdrawing its troops from southern Lebanon
in May 2000, Israel has made its contribution towards complying with UN Resolution 425? Against the
backdrop of
international efforts to renew peace negotiations between Syria and Israel, does the
Commission think it helpful for the Syrian President to announce, as he did on 27 March 2003 in the
Lebanese newspaper ‘Al-Safir’, that Israel would never be recognised as a state and would constitute a
threat to Syria for as long as it existed and that, as he said in May 2001, the Jews were to blame for Jesus’
crucifixion? How does the Commission view the continued circulation of
inflammatory anti-Semitic
material by members of the Syrian Government, e.g. by Mustafa Tlass, Minister of Defence and Deputy
Prime Minister for many years, whose book ‘The Matzah of Zion’ containing the claim that Jews bake
matzah from Christians’ blood, is now in its eighth print run?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(19 June 2003)

The Commission is acting under directives from the Council of Ministers to negotiate an Association
Agreement with Syria. Negotiations are still ongoing and it is too early to judge the prospects for the

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Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

successful conclusion of the negotiations. The Association Agreement, such as foreseen in the Council’s
negotiating directives, will cover a wide range of issues. For the political dialogue issues and the principles
guiding the Association, negotations are followed by the Member States and these are consulted regularly
in the relevant Council working group. As for all mixed agreements, once negotiations have been
concluded, the full text will be submitted to the Council and to the Parliament for ratification.

The Council’s negotiating directives were extended in 2001 to include provisions on cooperation on
counter-terrorism. In the course of negotiations on the text of this article, the Commission has expressed
to Syrian authorities its position against terrorism and has condemned all attacks on civilians.

The Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements do not include positions or statements on individual
political conflicts or issues, but contain provisions for long-term stable relationships based on a number of
basic and general principles.

More generally, the Union has encouraged Syria to take an active part in relaunching the Middle East Peace
Process in the framework of the road map prepared by the Quartet. A natural part of such a step is for
Syria to cease links with organisations that do not accept Israel’s right to exist, in particular those listed as
terrorist organisations by the Council. In this context, we welcome the recent closure of the offices of
rejectionist Palestinian organisations in Syria. In line with the road map’s point on this, the Member fo the
Commission in charge of External Relations also raised the issue of stopping Arab countries’ support to
terrorist organisations during the Euro-Mediterranean Mid-Term Meeting of Foreign Minister’s on Crete on
26/27 May 2003.

The road map clearly refers to the need to relaunch the Lebanese and Syrian tracks and it mentions the
Saudi peace initiative recognising Israel’s right to exist within the 1967 borders. Syria accepted this by
voting in favour of the Beirut Declaration of the Arab League in 2002. This recognition is further
confirmed by the apparent resumption of contacts between Syria and Israel.

Regarding the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon, these were invited by Christian factions at the start of
the civil war in 1976. The 1989 Ta’if Agreement, which ended the civil war, provided for initial
redeployment of the Syrian troops from Lebanese cities to the Beka’a valley. The timetable for their final
withdrawal was to be agreed between the Syrian and Lebanese governments. Lebanon has not yet
requested this. Since the Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, calls in Lebanon for Syrian withdrawal
have become more vocal, and a partial Syrian retreat has taken place in the last two years.

The Commission deplores any publication of anti-Semitic literature. It may be noted that under the future
Association Agreement’s human rights clause, the EU will be in a stronger position to raise issues of this
kind with Syria.

(2004/C 78 E/0413)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1854/03

by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 June 2003)

Subject: Landslides in Greece and infrastructural damage

In my Written Question E-1141/03 (1) I asked the Commission whether landslides in Greece (causing
unprecedented damage in many cases to infrastructures which had been completed only a few months
previously) were linked to geological upheavals which could be caused by intense seismic activity affecting
Greece as a whole.