Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-15-Speech-3-008"
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"en.20030115.1.3-008"2
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". – Mr President, I very much welcome this opportunity, with my colleague Mr Ionitsis, to discuss progress in Afghanistan over the past year. As I said to the Foreign Affairs Committee in December, the changes have been in many respects dramatic, and do offer a real chance to build a stable democracy. But timing is critical; there is – as the Minister properly underlined – a limited window of opportunity which we have to exploit. Unless President Karzai and his Government manage to strengthen their position throughout the country, then there is a risk that these early gains will be lost.
That means that the money which we have spent in total in Afghanistan over the last twelve months, the money which is voted by this Parliament, now stands at EUR 275 million. I do not think anybody can suggest that we have not played – or are not still playing – our full part so far in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
For 2003, the challenge will be to consolidate this early progress. The Commission will continue to play a leading role. We anticipate total development assistance of about EUR 185 million, and there will also be continued humanitarian assistance from ECHO of between EUR 45 and 55 million. That means that we will be spending in Afghanistan this year, on present estimates, between EUR 230 and 240 million. Colleagues will recall that at Tokyo on behalf of the Commission I pledged EUR 1 billion over five years in reconstruction assistance. That is not including the humanitarian assistance figures that I have mentioned, so the total contribution of the European Commission, from your taxpayers' money, to Afghanistan, quite apart from contributions from Member States, will be well in excess of EUR 1 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Some people in the past have derided that sort of work as nation-building or social work. Frankly, when I look back, I think if we had done more of it in the 1980s and 90s, we would not have the problems that we have had recently in Afghanistan.
Success in 2003 will hinge on three key issues. First, the need to improve internal security. Second, the need to ensure human rights are fully respected, including those of women and minorities. When I visited Kabul last year, one of the most moving visits that I paid was to a school in the extraordinary bomb site that is southern and western Kabul, where young women had returned to schooling for the first time in six years and were sitting in classrooms without blackboards, without textbooks, being taught physics. I must say the commitment and dedication of the staff, and of those young women, was remarkable: anybody who ever thought that it would have been right for us to stand by and allow Taliban rule to continue indefinitely should perhaps have been present on that occasion. The third key issue for us is the need for continued long-term commitment from donors and for effective coordination. The argument about coordination is one which has been extremely well made by Members of this Parliament, and I will say another word about it a little later if I may. Internal security is critical not only for the future of Afghanistan but also to the delivery of aid. Aid workers must be able to work without fear of recrimination. In this context, I would like to express my strong concern about the death of one aid worker, and the serious injury of two others, in Kabul just before Christmas. I think sometimes we underestimate the amounts of courage and commitment which are required for aid workers working in these sort of circumstances.
President Karzai’s commitment at the 2 December Bonn II Conference to form an Afghan National Army is a welcome step forward, as is the recent signing of the Kabul Declaration on good-neighbourly relations. The Government must press on quickly with the creation of a National Army, but clearly this will not be achieved overnight.
In the meantime, the international community must do everything possible to support President Karzai and to strengthen the Government’s position across all regions of the country, including in the fight against opium poppy production. The Minister has already referred to our concern about this. If you look at the present UN figures, there is very considerable reason not just for concern, but alarm. There has been a substantial increase in the amount of hectares under opium production, a rapid increase in the farm-gate price of poppies, a ballooning in the production of heroin with implications not only for surrounding countries, but for European countries, and for the funding of organised crime and terrorism in the region and beyond. I believe that we have to give far more attention to this problem in the next year or so, a problem which directly affects political authority in Afghanistan itself. Overall, as agreed at the Bonn II meeting, we need tangible benchmarks to measure progress. These are critical not only to shape our vision of Afghanistan’s future, but to provide support to the reformers within the Government.
This is of critical importance for human rights
Recent reports highlight the unacceptable situation faced by minority groups, and women, in some parts of the country. We must secure fundamental change by ensuring that the establishment of the independent Human Rights Commission translates into tangible change on the ground, and that the new Constitution enshrines human rights for all, including women. Clearly, these issues are vital in view of the general elections which are scheduled for mid 2004.
We also cannot hope to deliver sustainable change without good donor coordination. We must all continue to give a strong and consistent message to the Afghan Government about the need to tackle internal security, to respect human rights for everyone and to set benchmarks for progress.
I would like to finish by stressing that we must be prepared for the long haul – regardless of other events that may unfold in 2003. Rebuilding a cohesive state will take time, as will improving the unacceptably low levels of education and healthcare. I want to assure Parliament of my personal commitment to these tasks. I paid a first trip to Kabul in May 2002 and will be returning this February as part of a trip to the Central Asian Republics. I intend to make one of the priorities of my visit the discussion of the better coordination of donor efforts, including the work done by NGOs. The support received from this House has been very reassuring, especially in helping to secure funding for Afghanistan for 2003. I look forward to an equally rewarding working relationship with Parliament over the coming year and I want to express my great gratitude for the informed and thoughtful contribution which Parliament has made to the discussion of these issues. It is sometimes difficult for the international community to focus on more than one or two blips on its radar screen at any one moment. There is a real danger of us assuming that, because we do not read as much about Afghanistan on the front pages of the newspapers, our job in Afghanistan is, as we would say colloquially in English, done and dusted. It is far from that. There is a huge job for us to do in Afghanistan. There are worrying tasks for the international community in the Central Asian Republics and there are reasons for concern about the situation in Pakistan. So I hope that we can continue to focus on this work in the years ahead, whatever the tragic distractions may be elsewhere.
But before turning to the substantial challenges that lie ahead, I would like to say something about the successes of 2002, successes accomplished in extremely difficult circumstances.
Only a year ago donors met in Tokyo to pledge over USD 1.8 billion for 2002. Much has since been achieved in Afghanistan. In the summer, President Karzai was elected by an Emergency Loya Jirga to lead the Afghanistan Transitional Authority; constitutional and judicial commissions have been established; a new currency has been introduced, and the process of recovery and of reconstruction is well under way with increasingly strong leadership from the Afghan Government.
The international community has not only honoured the pledges made at Tokyo, but, not least in comparison with some problems we have experienced in the past, the speed of disbursement has been remarkable.
The track record of the European Union and the European Commission has been, I think one can fairly say, particularly impressive. By early December, EUR 755 million of the total European Union commitment of over EUR 830 million had actually been disbursed. The Commission has played a leading role in co-ordinating the European Union effort and we have been actively involved in building up a strategic dialogue on Afghanistan with the United States and other G-8 partners.
I must say that I am very proud of the quality of the EC assistance programme and the speed with which it has been delivered. It is a fine example of a successful linkage between relief and recovery, and it has been a good test case for the reform of the management of the external service. It is also fair to pay tribute to the excellent staff we have at the newly set-up EC office in Kabul.
I would also like to pay tribute to the Special Representative, who brings so much knowledge and so much expertise to his extremely challenging work.
In more concrete terms, our development programme of over EUR 205 million in 2002 has helped to finance: firstly, the operation of 238 health clinics and over 450 primary schools as part of the Government’s 2002 Back to School campaign; secondly, the clearance of landmines and unexploded bombs from more than 8 000 square kilometres of land; thirdly, the return of some 17 000 key public sector workers, including the return to service of over 2 000 teachers and 2 000 nurses and doctors and fourthly, the creation of jobs. Through our rural recovery and urban rehabilitation programmes, we are financing over 3 million person days of work this year alone, and I should also refer to the rebuilding of infrastructure. The Commission, along with the Swedish government and Pakistan, has already started the emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Kabul-Jalalabad-Torkham road and full reconstruction will start next year
In addition, our humanitarian aid has helped to support the return of over 1.8 million refugees to Afghanistan. Over EUR 70 million has been spent by ECHO in 2002."@en1
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