Syria’s return to Euro-Mediterranean frameworks is not simply a technical process of institutional reactivation. It is a political process of rebuilding a bilateral relationship that broke down abruptly, and that was already institutionally shallow before it broke. The instruments available through Euro-Mediterranean cooperation presuppose a degree of bilateral normalcy; a functioning Association Agreement, a negotiated Multi-Annual Indicative Programme (MIP), ministerial-level coordination channels, and institutional counterparts capable of absorbing and implementing structured cooperation that EU-Syria relations have never fully achieved. Understanding why and understanding what would need to be different this time requires looking at the wider EU-Syria relationship: its history, its structural weaknesses, and the specific complications that make the current re-engagement both urgent and genuinely difficult.

This Policy Study examines what Syria’s return to the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation arena would require in the broader context of renewed EU-Syria relations. Drawing on four complementary perspectives, it traces the weaknesses of the pre-2011 relationship, the limits of sanctions and conflict-era engagement, and the opportunities and risks shaping the current phase of re-engagement. The study finds that the EU has moved quickly since the fall of the Assad regime, but still lacks a consolidated strategy, a negotiated multiannual framework, and instruments fully adapted to Syria’s fragile and evolving institutions. It argues that security sector reform, civil peace, inclusive governance, and the protection of minority communities are not secondary outcomes of stabilisation, but essential conditions for meaningful cooperation. At the same time, the study highlights important openings, including a more active civic space, resilient civil society and independent media, the role of the Syrian diaspora, and the new High-Level Political Dialogue. It concludes that a durable partnership will depend on combining state-level engagement with sustained support for Syrian society, clearer EU incentives and commitments, and stronger accountability on both sides.