MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Concerns about humanitarian aid in Syria reaching minorities persecuted by Islamists – P-001099/2025

Priority question for written answer  P-001099/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Mathilde Androuët (PfE)

Last December, when Islamists took power in Syria, Ursula von der Leyen recalled that the EU had been Syria’s largest donor since 2011, providing EUR 33 billion in humanitarian aid. This, she said, had been done ‘while respecting the principles of no contact, no cooperation, no funding to the Assad regime’[1]. The Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, Hadja Lahbib, announced in January that in 2025 the Commission would provide further humanitarian aid to Syrians totalling EUR 235 million[2].

The massacres of civilians committed by Islamist fighters supporting Ahmed al-Sharaa’s ‘provisional government’[3] raise questions about the extremist militias’ intention to allow this aid to be distributed fairly, especially to the Alawite community, but also to the Christians, who urgently need it and who, for political reasons, receive little help from the West[4].

In this context, will the Commission pay particular attention to ensuring that the humanitarian aid is properly distributed, with the same political and ‘ethical’ requirements expressed under the previous regime?

Submitted: 14.3.2025

• [1] ‘Press statement by President von der Leyen with President of Türkiye Erdoğan’, European Commission, 17 December 2024.
• [2] ‘EU provides €235 million humanitarian aid to Syrians’, European Commission, 17 January 2025.
• [3] ‘Massacres en Syrie: les nouvelles autorités mises à l’épreuve par les pires violences depuis la chute d’Al‑Assad’, Franceinfo, Fabien Magnenou, 10 March 2025, https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/revolte-en-syrie/massacres-en-syrie-les-nouvelles-autorites-mises-a-l-epreuve-par-les-pires-violences-depuis-la-chute-d-al-assad_7121439.html.
• [4] ‘Les aides financières à la Syrie rétrécissent, la minorité chrétienne en danger’, Vatican News, Delphine Allaire, 19 June 2023, https://www.vaticannews.va/fr/monde/news/2023-06/syrie-chretiens-guerre-moyen-orient-onu-ue-reconstruction-ong.html