DELEGATION FOR RELATIONS WITH AFGHANISTAN

Transcription

1 EUROPEAN PARLIAMT DELEGATION FOR RELATIONS WITH AFGHANISTAN Chair: : Mr Guido PODESTA (EPP-DE, Italy) EU - Afghanistan Relations The 2001 Bonn Agreement and the Afghanistan Compact, adopted at the London Conference on 31 January 2006, allowed the establishment of a framework governing the involvement of the international community in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Compact, which covers a period of five years (until the end of 2010), establishes mutual commitments, detailed criteria and deadlines in four major areas: security, governance, the rule of law and human rights, social and economic development and the fight against drugs. On 16 November 2005, the EU and Afghanistan adopted a Joint Declaration setting out a new partnership. This Joint Declaration outlines increased co-operation, based on Afghan ownership, across a range of areas. It also establishes a regular political dialogue, with annual meetings at Ministerial level and reaffirms the EU s long-term commitment to Afghanistan. The EU s assistance reflects the priorities set out in Afghanistan s National Development Strategy ( ) adopted at the Paris Conference on 12 June It includes support for justice, law and order, combating narcotics production, and assisting the health sector. The EU engagement towards Afghanistan was reconfirmed on the occasion of the Afghanistan Conference in The Hague on 31 March The European Union focuses its activities largely on governance and the rule of law. Its approach is that building capacity for the Afghan Government and providing for Afghan ownership of the process at all levels will allow the government to deliver essential services to its citizens and will enable it to challenge directly immediate security threats. The European Commission has been very active since 2002 as a major donor, committing euro 1.6 billion mainly on three areas: governance, health, rural development and counter-narcotics. Its plan is to deliver 700 million Euro more for NT\ doc PE v01-00

2 The European Union launched the Police mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL AFGHANISTAN) in June The EUPOL Afghanistan's central role is the training of the Afghan police. The Mission is deployed in 16 Afghan provinces. EUPOL works with 225 international staff and 123 local staff (as of March 2009). 19 EU Member States plus Canada, Croatia, New Zealand and Norway contribute to the Mission. Mr Kai Vittrup is the Head of the EU Police Mission in Afghanistan. He was appointed in October The EU Special Representative for Afghanistan is Mr Ettore Francesco Sequi, appointed by the Council on 24 July 2008 (his mandate was extended until the end of February 2010). EP - National Assembly of Afghanistan relations The EP Delegation for relations with Afghanistan was set up on 11 April 2007 but the relations of the European Parliament with Afghanistan, at the parliamentary level, had already started a few years earlier: the first ad-hoc Delegation of the European Parliament to Afghanistan, led by Mr Elmar BROK (EPP-ED, Germany), took place on July 2005 and had as a main objective to deepen the understanding of the political situation in the view of the first Afghan parliamentary elections, held on 18 September The EP participated in the EU Elections Observation Mission with a Delegation headed by Mr José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra (EPP-ED, Spain) (15-20 September 2005). The next Interparliamentary contact took place from 18 to 21 December 2005 on the occasion of the inaugural session of the National Assembly of Afghanistan. The EP was represented by Mr. Jürgen Schröder (EPP-ED, Germany). An Afghan Delegation, led by Mr Muhammad Yunus Qanoni, Speaker of the Wolesi Jirga, visited Strasbourg on December In the framework of the newly established EP standing delegation for relations with Afghanistan, Interparliamentary meetings between our parliament and the Wolesi Jirga, the Lower House of the Afghan Assembly, have been held on a regular basis. The first IPM took place on November 2007 ; the Afghan Delegation visiting Brussels was then led by Mr Mohammad Arif Noorzai, Deputy Speaker of the Wolesi Jirga. The 2nd IPM was held in Afghanistan, with Mr Philippe Morillon (ALDE, France) leading the EP Delegation. The most recent Interparliamentary meeting with the Wolesi Jirga was organised on February 2009, in Brussels. The head of the Afghan Delegation was Mr Salih Mohammad Saljoqi, Secretary of the Lower House. The attached reports and joint declarations, issued after each Interparliamentary meeting (see the annexes), provide an overview of all the issues discussed at each meeting ; talks focused mainly on security, relations with the neighbouring countries, economic situation, corruption, rule of law and governance, narcotics, health, and human rights. PE v /5 NT\ doc

3 At each meeting the necessity to establish, within the Afghan Assembly, a counterpart delegation for relations with the European Parliament was highlighted, in order to guarantee the permanent character of parliamentary cooperation. The Afghan Parliament thus established its own Friendship Committee with the European Parliament in June 2009, composed of 13 Members (see list in annexes). With regard to the frequency of contacts, the objective is to hold regular Interparliamentary meetings on a yearly basis, alternating in Afghanistan and in one of the European Parliament's places of work. NT\ doc 3/5 PE v01-00

4 Activities during the term - chronology of meetings In the context of the EP Delegation for relations with Afghanistan November st IPM EP - Wolesi Jirga (Brussels) 26 April - 1 may nd IPM EP - Wolesi Jirga (Afghanistan) February rd IPM EP - Wolesi Jirga (Brussels) Before the establishment of the EP Delegation for relations with Afghanistan July 2005 EP Ad-hoc Delegation (Kabul) 5-20 September 2005 EP Mission to observe the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan (Kabul) December 2005 EP Delegation attending the inaugural session of the National Assembly of Afghanistan (Kabul) December 2006 Visit of an Afghan Delegation (Strasbourg) Other activities in the context of the EP cooperation with Afghanistan 1st EP ad-hoc delegation visit to Afghanistan: June 2003, led by General Morillon (to Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Bagram) Visit to EP in Strasbourg in April 2001, at the invitation of President Nicole Fontaine, of Ahmed Shah Massoud, Afghan military leader who played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan. Mr Massoud was assassinated on 9 September Visits to AFET by Afghan Ministers : Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs : Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs : Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta, newly appointed (March 2006) Minister of Foreign Affairs Visits by President Karzai : Parliament Plenary Session in Strasbourg : To sign the EU-Afghanistan Joint Political Declaration in Strasbourg; Secretariat (as of June 2009) Head of Unit: Mr Jean Loius BERTON jeanlouis.berton@europarl.europa.eu Principal Administrator: Mr Carlo CHICCO carlo.chicco@europarl.europa.eu Administrator: Ms Alida NADEJDE alida.nadejde@europarl.europa.eu Assistant: Ms Ainhoa MARKULETA ainhoa.markuleta@europarl.europa.eu 1 See annex for minutes of the Interparliamentary meetings (IPMs) PE v /5 NT\ doc

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