EU actions supporting Syrians and host communities
The conflict in Syria is now in its sixth year, and has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two. Millions of people are in need of emergency assistance such as medical and food assistance, water and shelter.
In December 2016 the EU's High Representative Federica Mogherini launched the EU Regional Initiative for Syria. The initiative will bring together countries from the region to discuss post-conflict governance and look at how to approach reconciliation and reconstruction, once a political transition is firmly underway. This initiative could create conditions for successful intra-Syrian negotiations in Geneva, guided by the UN and strongly supported by the EU.
The EU is hosting an international conference on the Future of Syria and the Region in Brussels in 2017, building on the 2016 London Conference and Kuwait conferences in 2013-2015. The conference will address how the international community approaches the political process towards transition, humanitarian aid and development assistance.
The EU is the leading donor responding to the Syrian crisis, with €9 billion from the EU and Member States collectively spent since the start of the conflict in humanitarian and recovery assistance to Syrians in the country and to refugees and their host communities in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey.
