EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday in Damascus that the European Union wanted to "upgrade" its partnership with Syria and help boost its recovery but called for further domestic reform. "The European Union is using its political and economic tools to help Syria on the path of inclusive and peaceful transition," Kallas told a press conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani. After the new authorities toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the EU lifted its economic sanctions on Syria and in May this year restored an EU-Syria cooperation agreement. "Now we aim to mobilize even more investment and upgrade our partnership. But that's also very much dependent on Syria's side," Kallas said, while also calling for institutional and security improvements. "Aid alone cannot build Syria. Foreign and domestic investment needs trust, and trust needs security, clear rules, rule of law, functioning institutions" and the equal participation of women in society, as well as reconciliation and transitional justice, she said. "We are ready to help to build the institutions," she said. The 27-nation bloc has launched a new chapter with Syria since Assad's fall, with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen telling President Ahmed al-Sharaa in January that Europe would "do everything it can" to support Syria's recovery. The country is trying to rebuild, reboot its economy and attract investment after more than 13 years of conflict that killed more than half a million people and ravaged the country's infrastructure and industry. Kallas noted that the EU "is already providing 620 million euros for recovery, humanitarian needs and strengthening institutions". The war also sent millions of Syrians fleeing abroad, and Syrians have made up the lion's share of asylum-seekers in the bloc over a decade, with a push for large numbers to eventually return home. Shaibani said that he and Kallas had "discussed several tracks, beginning with achieving a new partnership agreement" to replace the one dating to the 1970s, indicating that steps to advance the issue would continue into next year. He noted that Syria had been "active in combatting cross-border crime, combatting illegal migration, drugs and human trafficking". "We discussed ways to support the capacities of the Syrian coast guard, in the belief that the security of the Mediterranean also begins with our shores," he said. "Syria's security is an integral part of Europe's own security," he added.
