Following Syrian press coverage of a meeting between some individual members of the European Parliament and Bashar al-Assad, the S&D Group vice-president for foreign affairs Victor Boştinaru stated:

"The line of the Socialists and Democrats Group on Syria has always been a clear and definitive one. We stand with the people of Syria and we support the efforts of the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice-president of the Commission, Federica Mogherini, to start as soon as possible the reconciliation process, a credible political transition and the reconstruction of Syria. In addition, we continue to strongly condemn the war crimes and atrocities committed by different actors in Syria, including by the Assad regime against its own citizens. We believe that the building of a sustainable future for Syria should involve the thorough investigation and prosecution of all those responsible of war crimes by an appropriate impartial criminal justice.

"The participation of a small number of the European Parliament’s members in a delegation to Syria, which involved meeting with the current regime, is reprehensible and doesn’t represent in any way the position of our Group and the one constantly expressed in all official documents of the European Parliament."