Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-15-Speech-3-029"
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"en.20030115.1.3-029"2
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"Mr President, the subject of today’s debate is Afghanistan: one year after the Bonn Agreement. What we are in fact debating is several decades of Afghan history, with Bonn as just one stage in an ongoing crisis and, as we take stock, we realise that there is good news and bad news. In cases such as these it is, in fact, the people who need to take stock, by which I mean that it makes no difference to the people whether the violence is perpetrated by the warlords or the Taliban. In this sense, our objectives must be to establish a stable rule of law with stable institutions that allow democracy to function and everyone’s rights to be respected. A great deal of costly work needs to be done; more to the point, a long-term strategy is needed. The question is: do all the forces operating in the area have a common strategy? We have talked about the European Union, be it of the 15 or 25, but we have said nothing about, for example, Russia’s, America’s or Pakistan’s plans for the area. Are they with us or do they have a separate agenda, in which case our common objectives may not be so common after all.
Under these circumstances, as we take stock, we see that there is a great deal of cause for satisfaction: the situation is not the same as it was a year ago, but we still need to worry on a number of counts; are we perhaps turning back the clock and will situations return which should not return? So it might be a good idea to take stock of a few basic facts, such as the increase in crime, the operational limits of the state, whatever form it takes, and where the European taxpayers’ money is going. Because, if memory serves me well, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, for example, said that 80% of the money was being used by non-governmental organisations working in the area in order to stay afloat and only 20% was going to the country. If this is true, the best thing we can do for institutional development, democratisation and stabilisation is to involve as many Afghan citizens as possible."@en1
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