Neena Gill (S&D). – Madam President, we cannot turn a blind eye to the use of chemical weapons. In that respect, the targeted strikes by the US, the UK and France, staking out chemical facilities, sent an important signal. But this is not a mission accomplished. We do need a larger strategy and we need to implement it.

So my question to the External Action Service is how we will use the momentum to deliver this at both EU and UN level, ensuring that next week’s conference on Syria is not just a funding exercise, but underpinned by a strong diplomatic initiative. What will we do to revive responsibility to protect the doctrine at the UN and bring credible pressure to bear on Russia to engage in this process? Yesterday’s Foreign Ministers’ Council’s conclusions deplored Assad’s social engineering, closing off the path to a credible transition. What measures are we taking at UN level to ensure that aid and reconstruction reform is not dictated by Assad, one possible approach being to implement recommendations offered by the Martin Griffiths report?