Brussels, 28/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - During a visit to Brussels where, on Tuesday 28 September, he attended the meeting held between the European Parliament and national parliaments, the EU special representative for Afghanistan and the head of the EU delegation in that country, Vygaudas Usackas of Lithuania, presented the latest developments in Afghanistan and measures taken to implement the EU action plan for Afghanistan. Further to the international conferences in London and Kabul and the jirga (Assembly), it is essential to help the Afghan government “translate commitments into tangible results”, Usackas explained. Strengthening governance (especially by building up public administration, electoral reform and the justice sector) and the training of the Afghan Civilian Police are areas in which the European Union may provide “added value”, Usackas said speaking to the European press.
Supported by the European Commission, the EU delegation has already allocated €15 million for the construction of two training sites: - the Kabul Staff College and a regional centre for police training in Bamyan province, in the centre of the country. Courses will be given by EUPOL (the EU police mission in Afghanistan), which will thus, for the first time since it was launched in June 2007, have the possibility of conducting complete training in a fully independent manner. Civilian police will be trained, police that are not paramilitary but which are able to conduct investigations, interrogate someone who has breached rule of law and then work with the other judiciary authorities, he said, affirming that the need for a civilian police force will increase as the country becomes more stabilised. “We must be ready to give financial support to this training priority, as well as support in terms of human resources”, he underlined, highlighting the funding disparities between the EU and NATO. The annual budget for the NATO Training Mission (NTM-A) in Afghanistan, which for the past year has been the main actor in police reform and in providing assistance to the Ministry of the Interior, amounts to $9.5 billion (€7.06 billion), compared to an annual EUPOL budget of €50 million, Usackas pointed out. “It is important for us to admit that we are not alone but that we are only a part of a training initiative for 134,000 members of the police force in Afghanistan”, he said, underlining the “niche” represented by civilian police training. In the field of governance, the justice sector and the reinforcement of public administration are key areas of European action. Discussions are currently underway in order to set in place a network of civil training institutes, with the contribution of the European Commission and member states. The head of the EU delegation said that some effort by the Afghans is being seen in this field but that “the EU with its historical record of shaping and building up public administrations (in different countries) can provide huge added value in Afghanistan”. He also hoped the project currently being studied would become a flagship project for cooperation, which would give students the possibility of receiving real training with masters and bachelors diplomas, and exchanges with similar training institutes in Europe. Since 2002, the EU has contributed up to €8 billion for development cooperation projects. Further contributions are expected, especially in the field of support for the process of reintegrating the former Taliban insurgents, a project that was launched at the international conference in London in January 2010. Italy and Denmark have each announced their intention to disburse €4 million for this initiative. The United Kingdom has already allocated €2 million and wants to contribute a further €4 million, and Germany plans to commit €50 million to the project over five years. The training provided in the context of EUPOL has allowed 11,000 police officers to be trained over the past two years. (A.By./transl.jl)