Syria

After Cyprus and Germany, another EU country is facing accusations of involvement in arms exports to Syria. Contrary to the Government's commitment to the EU arms embargo, the British Parliament's Committees on Arms Export Controls states in its latest report that British arms companies are exporting military equipment to Syria that "might be used for internal repression." Franziska Brantner, Foreign Affairs Spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, declares on the report by the British Parliament's Committees on Arms Export Controls:

"All EU member states must respect their duty to ensure the integrity of the EU arms embargo prohibiting ‘the sale, supply, transfer or export of arms and related materiel of all types’ to Syria from member states. The case of the UK delivering martial equipment to the Assad regime demonstrates once again that the EU needs to improve its monitoring and enforcement mechanism, so that member states that do not comply with the rules can be held accountable and sanctioned. Any violation of the embargo fundamentally undermines our foreign policy efforts and credibility. Most importantly, a failure to enforce the embargo will significantly intensify the humanitarian crisis. We must make sure that we use our combined efforts to prevent the import of more violence to Syria."