{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2017-2303/annex/division-1",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2017-2303/annex/division-1.json",
  "legislation": "eudn/2017/2303",
  "legislation_title": "Council Decision (CFSP) 2017/2303 of 12 December 2017 in support of the continued implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2118 (2013) and OPCW Executive Council decision EC-M-33/DEC.1 on the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons, in the framework of the implementation of the EU Strategy against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2017-2303",
  "path": "annex/division/1",
  "kind": "division",
  "number": "1",
  "heading": "Background",
  "text": "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.\nOn 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.\nAs 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.\nOn 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.\nIn 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.\nOn 10 July 2017 the OPCW requested the reestablishment of the provision of Union satellite imagery as a follow-up to Decision 2013/726/CFSP.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2017/2303/annex/division/1",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-01T15:13:16.799094+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}