Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-26-Speech-3-293"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20051026.20.3-293"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
".
Madam President, last month nearly 7 million Afghans went to the polls to elect a parliament for the first time in 36 years. This was the culmination of a political transitional process agreed in Bonn four years ago.
What should the compact do? It should focus particularly on Afghan ownership and sustainability. Lasting stabilisation will not be possible unless the Afghan side is willing and able to take greater responsibility for the transition process and for making it sustainable. The Bonn Agreement showed the value of clear-cut targets and timetables to ensure momentum. So we should aim to incorporate clear benchmarks in the post-Bonn compact. Some form of joint Afghan-international monitoring of progress would also be useful. The post-Bonn compact should be a two-way street: it should contain clear-cut commitments from the Afghan side and commitments from the international community to stay engaged financially, politically and militarily.
Finally, I turn to the role of the European Union. The European Union and its Member States have been playing an important role in Afghanistan. Together we accounted for one-third of the USD 12.5 billion in grants pledged at the Tokyo and Bonn conferences. EU Member States are currently contributing 80% of the troops in ISAF. The EU Special Representative in Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, has been doing excellent work politically.
Under the auspices of the British Presidency, we are currently discussing with President Karzai’s Government a joint declaration on an EU-Afghan partnership. It would be an important political signal of continuing EU commitment to Afghanistan. It would also make clear our expectations, the kind of further progress we want to support in Afghanistan in fields such as governance, development and human rights. My hope is that this can be concluded in the weeks ahead so that it would be in place ahead of any post-Bonn conference and could help to shape discussions there.
Finally, I believe that the European Union is both entitled and obliged to play a major part in ensuring the success of the post-Bonn compact. The Commission will, in any case, remain engaged.
I visited Afghanistan at the beginning of September to look at the election preparations and see for myself the practical impact our assistance is having on the ground. I was also able to discuss all the challenges ahead and the next phase of the stabilisation process with President Karzai and his ministers, as well as with Afghan civil society and the United Nations. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to say a few words about the elections, the preparations for the post-Bonn period and future EU-Afghanistan relations.
The European Union has supported Afghanistan’s recent election in a number of ways. It is no exaggeration to say that the election could not have taken place without the European Union, including contributions by the Member States. We funded 40% of the election budget, contributing EUR 159 million.
We have also sought to improve transparency by deploying an EU Election Observation Mission, headed by Mrs Emma Bonino who is present today. This has followed the process since July. It also benefited from the cooperation of an observer delegation from Parliament, led by Mr Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, who is here today as well. I think we can say that the EU EOM was the single largest international observer group in the country. Its presence was extremely important.
In its preliminary statement, the EU EOM reported that the election day itself had been largely peaceful, the process up to that point had been generally well administered and the elections marked a step forward for Afghanistan’s democratic development. Nevertheless, it also noted a number of concerns, for instance with the whole campaign environment, the choice of voting system and the complaints mechanism. I understand that in some provinces fraud and irregularities have come to light during the counting phase. The Election Observation Mission has urged the electoral authorities to deal diligently with these concerns.
I would like to congratulate Mrs Bonino for her team’s excellent work so far. I look forward to the final report, which will include an overall assessment of the entire election process, as well as recommendations to improve the conduct of future elections. Mrs Bonino will be travelling to Kabul again before the end of the year to present the report to election stakeholders.
What comes next, after the Bonn process? Afghanistan has come a long way since the fall of the Taliban. I am proud that the European Commission’s assistance has had a tangible impact. We have pursued a combination of visible reconstruction, lasting capacity-building and improvements in the day-to-day lives of the Afghan people. We are on track to deliver the EUR 1 billion we pledged in Tokyo for the period 2002 to 2006.
If we think back to the chaos, devastation and repression in Afghanistan four years ago, it is clear that the country has made progress. Five million children are back in school, one-third of them girls. Eighty per cent of children have been vaccinated against measles and polio. Roads, schools and clinics are being built and many of them are already working.
However, the situation is still fragile and the improvements are not yet fully sustainable. It is clear that the country still has a long way to go. More work is needed, particularly on good governance, the rule of law, security, counter-narcotics and development. I therefore very much welcome the idea floated by the United Nations at the end of August of a major international conference, hopefully early in 2006, to draw up the ‘post-Bonn compact’ between Afghanistan and the international community. The European Union will again be an important participant in the conference."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples