EU Strategy in Afghanistan

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Monday 25th April 2016 General Committees

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

It might help the Committee if I explain a little of the background and why the European Scrutiny Committee recommended this joint communication and the subsequent Council decisions for debate.

The 2014 joint communication outlines the key elements of a future EU strategy, covering the political context as well as the key objectives and initiatives on which the EU will focus in support of the Government of Afghanistan. The communication focuses on four key areas: promoting peace and security, reinforcing democracy, encouraging economic and human development, and fostering the rule of law and respect for human rights. Although there was nothing controversial about the proposals in the joint communication, the previous European Scrutiny Committee, before the 2015 Dissolution, recommended it for debate because of the role that the EU would be undertaking, one way or another using EU taxpayer money, in post-2014 Afghanistan, and because of the host of uncertainties about issues essential to the strategy’s successful implementation. That Committee’s view was that the new Parliament would value the opportunity to debate the subject and that would give the new Government an opportunity to report on and discuss what had happened in the interim. The new European Scrutiny Committee endorsed that recommendation.

Earlier this year, in line with the strategy, the EU and Afghanistan finalised a co-operation agreement on partnership and development, which is the first contractual relationship between the EU and Afghanistan. It underpins the EU’s commitment to supporting Afghanistan’s development during its decade of transformation, as agreed at the 2011 Bonn conference. By strengthening political dialogue and improving co-operation in a broad range of areas, the CAPD constitutes, to quote the Minister for Europe,

“a framework for further engagement and cooperation between the EU and Afghanistan across a number of areas including political cooperation, human rights, gender equality, civil rights, peace building, counter-terrorism, development, trade, rule of law, policing, migration, education, energy and the environment.”

Nearly a year after the previous European Scrutiny Committee recommended the joint communication for debate by the European Committee, uncertainties remained about the strategy’s successful implementation, particularly in relation to the security situation. In February this year, the European Scrutiny Committee further recommended that the Council’s decision containing the consequential CAPD, together with the EU strategy document, should be debated as soon as possible. In so doing, the Committee’s aim was to facilitate a wide-ranging debate that enables the Government to clarify and discuss how and the context in which that agreement will operate, and interested Members to explore all the implications, including for the UK’s own commitments.