During the EP plenary session in Strasbourg MEPs debate on the Situation in Syria. Statements by Nicolas SCHMIT, President of the Council, Elmar BROK (EPP, DE), Richard Stuart HOWITT (S&amp;D, UK), Charles TANNOCK (ECR, UK),&nbsp; Marietje SCHAAKE (ALDE, NL), Alyn SMITH (Greens/EFA, UK), Cristian Dan PREDA (EPP, RO), and Arnaud DANJEAN (EPP, FR)

Situation in Syria: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, EU Council Presidency, Luxembourg, "We have spent 4 billion euros, so far, making us the biggest international donor, and faced with the additional flows of refugees this year, we are going to spend more. We will spend more on immediate aid for refugees providing them with shelter and with food. But we will also spend more on essential services such as health and education. An additional 1 billion euro will be mobilised".

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolas SCHMIT, EU Council Presidency, Luxembourg , "A military escalation in the civil war will lead nowhere. It will only prologue the agony of the conflict. Fighting terrorism is one thing, in Syria it means fighting the groups defined as terrorists by the UN, including Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra. It does not mean fighting alongside the regime in the civil war, that will only provoke a matching increase in the arm supplies by some regional powers to the opposition".

SOUNDBITE (German), Elmar BROK (EPP, DE), "If we don't succeed in bringing these countries together and to stop their proxy wars, in fact Daesh will only flourish and will end up threatening them. We have to get the big powers together. I have the impression that there is a second level of proxy-war here, involving Russia and America. And that plays a role too. So the question is to what extent can Russia estabilice its position as a power in the long term through its actions in Syria, and how can America prevent that".

SOUNDBITE (English), Richard Stuart HOWITT (S&amp;D, UK), "Now with the Russian intervention in Syria and the potential for a clash in its air space we face the danger of the biggest proxy-war of all".

SOUNDBITE (English), Charles TANNOCK (ECR, UK), "The levels of political military assistance now invested by Russia to support the brutal Assad regime, it shows that neither of these actors can be ignored in seeking a resolution to this bitter conflict".

SOUNDBITE (English), Marietje SCHAAKE (ALDE, NL), "I find it unacceptable that Russia and Saudi Arabia, and now the US are taking diplomatic initiatives, and that we are absent. Russia and Saudi Arabia are certainly no honest brokers, but can we be surprised that the vacuum we left was filled by others? While there are no simple solutions, there are certainties we cannot ignore. The needs of the millions of people on the run from Assad bombs, and ISIS brutalities, by far exceed the funds available".

SOUNDBITE (English), Alyn SMITH (Greens/EFA, UK), "We are tackling the symptoms rather than the cause. Adam Garfinkle, a US diplomat turned academic, has criticised the US policies on ISIS and I think it applies to French and British policies also. Tackling ISIS is akin to think that you can alter the position of a shadow by doing things to the shadow. We are not tackling the right things".

SOUNDBITE (French), Cristian Dan PREDA (EPP, RO), "What is at stake today is the strengths of our Transatlantic Alliance, a decisive element in this conflict. So when I see here some colleagues defending Putin's pacifism, I have the feeling that they are living in Moscow rather than in Europe".

SOUNDBITE (French), Arnaud DANJEAN (EPP, FR), "We are facing a crisis, which is just one among others, in terms of the decomposition of the Middle East. There are different frontlines there. Diplomacy should involve all regional stakeholders".

Situation in Syria: extracts from the debate

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