Hadja Lahbib received a red carpet welcome last week when she became the first European commissioner to visit Damascus, Syria's capital, and meet with the country's new leaders after the toppling of Bashar Assad last month.

She and Ahmad al-Sharaa, the Islamist rebel turned interim government leader, walked side by side, posed for photographs and sat across from one another for the first-of-their-kind talks.

Lahbib was there to announce a boost in aid from the European Union and push for more humanitarian access, but the ask from the Syrian side is clear: if you want to help, lift the broad sanctions imposed over Assad-era violations which keep the Syrian economy shut off from Europe.

The EU is still working out how to answer that question.

"We are waiting for some development and cautiously, we are here also to encourage the new authorities to build an inclusive Syria, embracing all its citizens, all its diversity," Lahbib said January 17 when pressed by journalists. "We need to see the rule of law being respected, human rights, women's rights."

With the clock ticking, Brussels is undertaking another complicated balancing act: supporting a democratic transition without supporting extremism, hoping refugees return without forcing deportations and waiting to see what happens next without losing the race for geopolitical influence with rivals like........

© Deutsche Welle