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ANNEX

1.   Background

Following an alleged use of chemical weapons in the Ghouta area of Damascus in August 2013, diplomatic efforts to eliminate the chemical weapons programme of the Syrian Arab Republic led to the Framework for Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons dated 14 September 2013, agreed upon between the Russian Federation and the United States of America.

On 27 September 2013 the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) adopted a historic decision on the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons (‘EC-M-33/DEC.1’), setting out an accelerated programme for achieving the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons. Syria officially became a State Party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction on 14 October 2013. The OPCW-UN Joint Mission on the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons (the ‘Joint Mission’) was formally established on 16 October 2013, with the main mission of overseeing the timely elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons programme in the safest and most secure manner possible. The Union contributed EUR 12 million to the specifically established OPCW Syrian Special Trust Fund to finance the activities for the complete destruction of Syrian chemical material stockpiles.

As a result of the Joint Mission, in cooperation with the Syrian government, all of the chemical weapons declared by Syria were removed and destroyed outside of Syrian territory by August 2014. The Joint Mission completed its mandate and its operations drew to a close on 30 September 2014. However, despite these efforts, the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria has continued to be reported, and the OPCW has maintained its remaining inspection and verification activities.

On 29 April 2014 the OPCW Director-General created an OPCW fact-finding mission (‘FFM’) mandated to establish the facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals for hostile purposes in the Syrian Arab Republic. The FFM supports the Joint Investigative Mechanism established by UN Security Council Resolution (‘UNSCR’) 2235 (2015) to identify perpetrators, organisers, sponsors or those otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic. At the same time, as questions were raised as to whether Syria's declaration about its chemical weapons programme to the OPCW was complete and correct, the OPCW Director-General established a team of experts – known as the Declaration Assessment Team (the ‘DAT’) – to engage the relevant Syrian authorities to resolve the identified gaps and inconsistencies in the Syrian declaration. Both the DAT's and the FFM's activities are still ongoing. The OPCW's missions in Syria continue as incidents of the alleged use of chemical weapons are still being reported and will require imagery support for visual awareness and security assessments, prior to team deployments.

In the framework of the EU Strategy against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the Union has provided support to the OPCW's missions in Syria through Council Decision 2013/726/CFSP, in support of UNSCR 2118 (2013) and EC-M-33/DEC.1. Decision 2013/726/CFSP supported the provision of situation-awareness products related to the security of the Joint Mission, including the status of the road network through the delivery to OPCW of satellite imagery and related information products of the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen). SatCen provided satellite imagery support to the OPCW until 30 September 2015. This service has proven extremely useful for the deployment of the FFM and other teams in Syria (e.g. the DAT) with regard to staff safety and the sound carrying out of the missions.

On 10 July 2017 the OPCW requested the reestablishment of the provision of Union satellite imagery as a follow-up to Decision 2013/726/CFSP.

2.   Overall objectives of the project

The general objective of the project is to support OPCW missions related to the Syrian Arab Republic, including the FFM and the DAT.

Specific objectives of the project are as follows:

3.   Description of activities

Ad-hoc tasking of SatCen, in compliance with Council Decision 2014/401/CFSP, within the Area of Interest (AOI) (locations of interest within the sovereign state of Syria) and within the mandate of the EEAS – including the associated management and reporting – with regard to the following:

Support will be provided to SatCen through the delivery of up to five FIRs (or equivalent effort ( 3 )) per week for the total duration of the project as specified in point 8.

4.   Expected results

Expected results of the project are as follows:

5.   Project beneficiaries

The OPCW will be the beneficiary of the project for visual awareness and security assessments prior to team deployments to Syria.

The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism, as it relies on the work of the FFM, will also benefit from the project.

6.   Project implementation team

The project will be implemented by the OPCW in cooperation with SatCen, based in Torrejon de Ardoz, Spain.

The project implementation team will consist of an OPCW substantive officer and a SatCen project officer. The project implementation team will be responsible for the management of the entire project cycle, including establishing the legal, managerial, monitoring and verification frameworks, for effective achievement of the project results and for reporting.

7.   Union visibility

Visibility of Union funding at OPCW events or meetings: the financial support of the Union will be acknowledged in reports of the OPCW Director-General and of the Executive Council referring to the abovementioned activities. The flag of the Union will be displayed on all project documentation. Where such display could jeopardise the OPCW privileges and immunities or the safety of the OPCW's staff or of the final beneficiaries, appropriate alternative arrangements will be made.

8.    ►M2  Estimated duration

The duration of the project is envisaged to be 48 months. ◄

9.   Steering committee

The steering committee for this project will be composed of representatives of the EEAS, the OPCW and SatCen. The steering committee will review the implementation of this Decision regularly, at least once every six months, including by the use of electronic means of communication.

10.   Reporting

The OPCW will provide a narrative progress report after six months to review progress towards the completion of project results. The OPCW will submit a final narrative and financial report within six months of the end of the implementation period.