Seminar on EU- Syrian cooperation held on January 22 in Damascus
Syria-European Union, Economics, 1/24/2000

A seminar on EU-Syrian cooperation was held at Damascus's Meridian Hotel on Saturday. It was organized jointly by a delegation of the European Commission and the federation of Syrian chambers of commerce and industry.

The goal of this seminar was to explain in an open way some of the key issues in EU- Syrian cooperation in the broader context of the Mediterranean area, to underline the main challenges for such a joint endeavor and to illustrate the support which is available from the European Union.

In his opening statement, head of the delegation of the European Commission in Damascus, Marc Pierini, explained why the EU is willing to associate itself with Syria.

He said that the EU's attitude towards Syria is part of its policy in the Mediterranean. He added that over the last ten years, the EU has made two major advances in external relations. First, in the early 1990s, the EU heads of state and government made the judgment that certain steps needed to be taken with Central and Eastern Europe in order to guarantee their prosperity and stability, as an essential element of the EU's own prosperity and stability. Secondly, heads of state and government made a similar judgment in 1995 concerning the Mediterranean because the Mediterranean, from Syria to Morocco, is a close neighbor of Europe.

On what the European Union is offering Syria, Pierini said the EU offer falls into two simple items: negotiating an association agreement, including free trade, and providing support for economic reforms well in advance of the entry into force of the association agreement. He said free trade provides for eliminating custom tariffs in both directions, which will allow more Syrian exports to Europe and will give an incentive towards competitiveness to Syrian manufacturers while the economic reforms will hopefully facilitate the modernization of the economic policies and institutions to bring them to international standards.

Pierini indicated that as a result there will be a stronger incentive for private investment, both national and foreign, therefore bringing technology and know-how to Syria and connecting its industry to European industries.

On whether Syria can undertake comprehensive economic reforms, Pierini said, "Syria can do it and is doing it. You will hear later some of the achievements of the Syrian- European Business Center, from export missions to training, from helping the food producers to enhancing the knowledge about Syrian brocade production. Yes, it works and it results in business opportunities for a larger number of entrepreneurs, not just the happy few."

He continued that Syria is a country with a large economic potential, and there is no reason why the Syrian people should not benefit from the geographical proximity of the biggest trading partner in the world, saying that using this potential better is primarily a question of vision and will, from the government and from the private sector alike.

On what the EU is doing to help in Syria, the EU chief of mission said the EU has a number of projects concerning the Syrian economy, some operational, most others waiting clearance from the authorities. The idea is to help modernize both the government's policies and institutions as well as the private sector, in order to make Syria more competitive in international markets, while negotiations are going on for an association agreement providing for free trade.

Pierini recalled that both the decision to start the negotiations for such an agreement and to apply EU support to economic reforms were taken at the highest political level in Syria. He added that more recently President Hafez al-Assad, in his address to the Syrian parliament of March 1999, called for a number of economic reforms, including the financial sector, and for the negotiation of a mutually-beneficial agreement with the European Union.

Concerning the next steps to be taken by the EU towards Syria, Pierini said that currently, the EU has seven operational projects worth 63 million euros. He explained under the "MEDA 1" program, which covered the period of 1996-1999, a further 11 projects worth 107 million euros were decided upon by the EU from 1996 onwards and are awaiting decisions from the Syrian government.

The fact that the MEDA 1" program is still not operational four years after its initial launching is of course a source of serious concern for the European Parliament, for the member states of the union and for the European Commission, he said.

He added once these operations are cleared, the European Commission will be in a position to start organizing the next tranche of operations under the "MEDA 2" program, covering the years 2000 and beyond. Under "MEDA 2" the EU hopes to be able to expand its activities to the social sector with projects like Healthy Villages and Cities program and Mobile Medicine.

He also expressed hopes of moving next month to an operational phase in the negotiation of the EU- Syria Association Agreement. He said the EU proposed on November 10 last year to hold the next session in Brussels in mid-February and to start the drafting of the agreement.

On the positive outcome of the implementation of Middle East peace process in maintaining a strong and effective Syria-EU partnership, Pierini said that the EU political decision has been "made long ago and has been stated less than a week ago," when the Portuguese foreign minister, whose country currently presides over the current rotating presidency of the European Union, met with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa in Damascus.

He hoped that a Syrian-Israeli peace agreement will come to life very soon, saying, "Certainly the European Union has spared no efforts in this direction and consultations with the Syrian authorities have been permanent." Pierini continued that peace will have one simple but major consequence: The entire world, and in particular the business world, will shop around for trade and investment and will compare advantages of the countries in the region.

Among other debates read in the seminar were those on "Economic reforms in the Mediterranean area: the state of play," "Challenges and opportunities of an association agreement from the business point of view," and " Upgrading the Syrian business environment."

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