EU to step up Afghan aid, coordinate better
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union said on Tuesday it would increase aid to Afghanistan but warned the situation was deteriorating and reforms were almost non-existent in some areas.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg adopted a strategy to better coordinate help to rebuild Afghanistan, days after NATO backed U.S. General McChrystal's plans for combating the Taliban insurgency.
The EU action signaled it was ready to play a full role in Afghanistan following calls in the United States for more international support.
"The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. We are not only faced with a critical security situation. Progress on political reform, governance and state-building is too slow and in some parts of the country almost non-existent," the ministers said in a document setting out the EU strategy.
Arriving for talks with the ministers, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the 27-country bloc would offer new aid to Afghanistan but gave no details.
"We will indeed increase substantially our assistance to Afghanistan and also to Pakistan according to this new strategy. But it's a little too early to give you official figures," she told reporters.
The EU and its member states provide Afghanistan with nearly 1 billion euros ($1.50 billion) in civilian aid a year. The European Commission, the EU's executive, provides about 140 million of this amount.
Ferrero-Waldner confirmed EU observers would monitor a presidential election run-off in Afghanistan after allegations of widespread fraud in the first round, most of which were aimed at President Hamid Karzai.
NEW STRATEGY
The EU strategy said it would reinforce efforts to train Afghan officials and help create effective state institutions, better coordinate aid efforts and seek better governance by the next Afghan government.
The aim is for the international community gradually to step back to let Afghans take full responsibility for the security and running of Afghanistan, with international support.
"We need to go in after the presidential election with a very clear message. There has to be a new start. There has to be a dedicated, credible reform strategy by the Afghan authorities," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
The EU strategy aims to build a network of experts from EU states who could be deployed at short notice to Afghanistan and to ensure full deployment of officers for an police training mission which has fallen behind schedule.
The EU also backs an international conference on Afghanistan to discuss political and economic issues. The United Nations has proposed holding such a summit in Afghanistan early next year.
U.S. President Barack Obama is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan despite public concern over growing casualties among U.S. and NATO troops.
NATO defense ministers, most of them from EU countries, last week backed McChrystal's calls for steps such as increased training for Afghan troops but did not say whether they backed his call for a big increase in foreign troop numbers.
"The McChrystal report is very clear. The military security efforts are critical to success in Afghanistan, but without success in the political civilian effort they area going to come to nothing whatsoever," Bildt said.
(Additional reporting by Timothy Heritage)
