EU states give green light to Afghanistan police mission
Some 160 EU-badge wearing police experts could be deployed in Afghanistan by mid-2007, after member states' officials in the Political and Security Committee gave the mission the green light on Friday (26 January).
The project - still in its early planning phase - is designed to support a NATO-led military and nation-building campaign in the South Asian country and will be funded from the EU's €170 million Common Foreign and Security Policy budget for 2007.
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"This will be on the same model as previous EU police forces - the personnel will be seconded from member states and will work under an EU flag. The chain of command will answer to EU command structures in Brussels," an EU official said.
"All the member states are behind the project, so it's a good start," the official explained. "Member states already have about 80 police experts in place, so they won't be starting from scratch."
The EU mission will go into villages and towns to train local police in areas that have been cleared of Taliban fighters by NATO forces, with fierce fighting still ongoing in parts of the country.
A two-week long EU fact-findng mission to Afghanistan in December 2006 confirmed that the US, the UN, the Afghanistan government and NGOs would "welcome" the EU scheme.
"The Europeans have a variety of different kinds of police: gendarmerie, guardia civil, carabinieri, treasury police and others, each of which...can make a contribution," US assistant secretary of state, Richard Boucher, told EUobserver.
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in reaction to 9/11 under Operation Enduring Freedom, with NATO taking over command in 2006 and with 19 European states currently fielding military forces.
The US rejects suggestions the arrival of the EU flag will have political meaning. "I don't think the EU flag is more welcome than the American flag, frankly. I think anybody who's there to help the government is welcome," Mr Boucher said.
EU earmarks anti-heroin cash
The EU police decision came the same day the European Commission pledged €600 million in reconstruction aid for Afghanistan on top of €3.7 billion pledged by the EU since 2002, while the US pledged $10.6 billion to extend its campaign.
The commission's cash will be used to train civil servants and judges, build hospitals and provide "alternative livelihoods" for heroin poppy farmers, while a wider international effort builds roads and electricity networks.
"The fundamental problems that prevent Afghanistan making progress are the challenge of extending the authority of the government beyond Kabul and the scourge of narcotics production," a commission spokeswoman said.