Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-12-16-Speech-3-183"
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"en.20091216.14.3-183"2
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"Mr President, the Council is genuinely grateful for the huge commitment shown by the European Parliament on this issue. I will answer some of your questions.
Mr Kasoulides: the action plan takes the regional perspective as its starting point. It is absolutely central. Enormous emphasis is placed on good governance, combating corruption and the principles of the rule of law, and this is the work that is guiding the EU. In these areas, Afghanistan and Pakistan will need our support for a very, very long time to come. Mr Kasoulides is right in saying that we have not given sufficient attention to the drugs issue. We support the efforts being made, for example, the UNIDOC cooperation and technical assistance. This must continue. Most important of all, of course, is to support the work that the Afghan government is doing to create greater prosperity and good social governance.
To Mr Arlacchi, I would say that we agree that the efforts made to date have not been sufficiently coordinated. That is a problem for the EU, and that is why it is so important for us to have this plan now. The Swedish Presidency has also struggled hard during the autumn to obtain the type of information that you ask about – who is doing what, and how much – and to get an overall view of what is happening. We now have a better picture and we are very much looking forward to your report, which can help us as we move forward with this work, as well as to cooperating with you and the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
I would say to Mr Danjean that EUPOL is a very important element in our cooperation and the most important element for the Afghan Government as regards civil police work. It has emerged that there is very strong leadership in place. The qualities of EUPOL are recognised by all parties – the Afghans, the US and other parties. We have increased the workforce by 280 international personnel. We regret that the Member States have not been able to provide the 400 personnel that we require, and we are currently calling for further contributions because we want the Member States to be involved.
As things stand at present, EUPOL is consolidating its activities into six strategic areas where we believe value can be added: police intelligence, investigating crime, the command structure in the police, links between police and prosecutors, combating corruption and also human rights and equality. These are the Afghan priorities. NATO is now to become involved in police training through its training mission and naturally, we need to intensify our cooperation in this area.
Finally, I would like to say that the action plan is incredibly important in enabling the EU to use its resources in a better, more coordinated way. We must now focus on implementing all these good ideas. We can do this through the regional perspective, through the responsibility taken by the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan themselves and by focusing on our political priorities, the rule of law, democracy and human rights.
The EU is one partner. A very important partner, but there are other partners in the region, too, and naturally, we must cooperate with them. We are looking forward to the London conference at which we hope President Karzai will present his plans, and we are looking forward to increasing our support after that.
The EU’s support is long-term and enduring, and it must be sustainable. That is the signal we must send out. This is going to take time. We have to be realistic. We have an enormous amount of work ahead of us. That is why we need the EU to be committed. We need to send out a signal that we are in it for the long haul – not least for the sake of the women and children, as many Members have mentioned."@en1
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