The European Parliament, the legislative body of the European Community, is due to re-examine an E.C. financial aid package to Syria, which was blocked earlier this year when the parliament attacked the country’s human rights record.
Sources at the European Parliament, which meets in Strasbourg, France, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the E.C. financial aid package for Syria, worth some $200 million, will be presented at next week’s plenary session.
In order to pass, the package needs the assent of 260 of the parliament’s 518 members.
In January the package, known as a protocol, was rejected in the parliament after the legislative body accused Syria of widespread human rights violations. Among the charges leveled at the Damascus regime were torture of political prisoners, refusal to allow Syrian Jews to emigrate, and the alleged presence in Syria of German Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner.
The European commissioner in charge of Mediterranean affairs, Abel Matutes of Spain, then deplored the parliament’s refusal to go ahead with the Syrian protocol, saying approval would put in the E.C. in a better position to influence Syria’s human rights policy.
He also mentioned that Damascus has been a key player in the Middle East peace process.
The parliament’s Commission on Development and Cooperation voted 15-8, with one abstention, to discuss the Syrian protocol next week.
Sources said the commission took into consideration the recent announcements that Syria has begun to let Jews leave the country.
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