Eighteen months after the fall of one of the world’s most feared dictators, Europe is reaching out to a country still struggling to find its footing, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
On May 11, foreign ministers from all 27 European Union nations sat down in Brussels with Syria’s top diplomat, Asaad al-Shaibani. It was a historic moment, the kind that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago, when Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime was bombing its own people and the world watched in horror.
Now Assad is gone, swept from power in December 2024. And Europe, which spent years imposing sanctions and turning a cold shoulder, is ready to rebuild the relationship.
The stakes are enormous. Nearly half of Syria’s population, some 13 million people, still relies on food aid to survive. Cities lie in ruin. An entire generation has grown up knowing nothing but conflict. The EU has already committed 620 million euros in aid through 2027, but money alone cannot fix what war has broken.
Europe’s interest, however, is not purely humanitarian. Over the past decade, Syrians have made up the largest share of asylum seekers arriving on European shores. Millions made dangerous journeys seeking safety. Now, with a new Syrian government in place, EU leaders are hoping that stability at home could eventually mean refugees going back.
“We need the Syrian transitional government to succeed,” one EU diplomat said plainly. “Because that’s in our interest.”
On May 11, the EU took a concrete step restoring a cooperation agreement with Syria that had been frozen since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on protesters shocked the world.
It is a fragile new beginning. But for millions of Syrians, it may be the first real sign that the world has not forgotten them.
