History

The Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries (DMAS) is one of the European Parliament's oldest delegations, having been established after the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979. While its remit has changed slightly since it was formed, the delegation currently focuses on the four countries in the Mashreq region: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

In the nearly four decades that have elapsed since its creation, the delegation has held dozens of interparliamentary meetings with its Mashreq counterparts and has spent significant time in Brussels and Strasbourg monitoring the situation in the region and the Mashreq countries' relations with the EU.

Egypt was the first of these countries to mark its budding relationship with the EU with personal contact, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg in February 1981.

Regular interparliamentary meetings started in the spring of 1983. In March of that year, the DMAS delegation embarked on a working tour, visiting Cairo for the first European Parliament (EP)-Egypt interparliamentary meeting and Amman for the first EP- Jordan interparliamentary meeting. In April 1983, a delegation of Syrian parliamentarians arrived in Strasbourg for the inaugural EP-Syria interparliamentary meeting. Contact with Lebanon, which was embroiled in a civil war from 1975 to 1990, would take the longest to get off the ground: it was not until 1994 that the DMAS delegation first travelled to the country to hold the first EP-Lebanon interparliamentary meeting.

During the European Parliament's fourth and fifth legislative terms (1994-1999 and 1999-2004), the Mashreq delegation merged with what had been the Delegation for relations with the Gulf States, becoming the Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and the Gulf States. As it was now responsible for relations with 11 countries instead of 4, the delegation could no longer focus on its 'first four' countries, and interparliamentary contact with each country waned. Still, delegation members met their Mashreq counterparts 14 times over the course of the decade. In the sixth legislative term (2004-2009), the delegation was again separated from the delegation devoted to the Gulf and could once more concentrate its efforts on the Mashreq region. It held 10 interparliamentary meetings in the sixth term, most of which involved MEPs travelling to the partner countries' parliaments. Of the four countries, Syria was the delegation's primary focus. Such a schedule, with its regular trips to Syria would sadly be inconceivable today, as the region was plunged into turmoil by the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 and continues to this day.

The events of the Arab Spring, beginning in 2010, have meant that the parliament that was once one of the DMAS delegation's steadiest partners - the People's Council of Syria - has largely been removed from the sphere of possible encounters. That is not to say that the delegation has turned its back on its partners.

Although the frequency of interparliamentary meetings slowed in the following legislative terms, as a result of by the challenging and sometimes critical political situation in the region, the delegation's attention to the conditions there has only intensified. DMAS delegation members visited Jordan in 2014, 2017, 2021 and 2023, Lebanon in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2023 and Egypt in 2016 and 2018.

The Delegation has 19 full and 19 substitutes members and is currently chaired by Laurent Castillo (EPP, France) and with Cecilia STRADA (S&D, Italy), as 1st Vice-Chair, and Leoluca ORLANDO, (Greens, Italy), as 2nd Vice-Chair.