What can Europe do for Pakistan? COPS discussion
(B2) This is, in a way, the question on which the ambassadors of the COPS - the political and security committee - worked on Tuesday, during a restricted meeting (ambassadors + 2 in European language.
Back from a mission in Pakistan, the European coordinator for the fight against terrorism, Gilles de Kerchove, gave an overview of all the security problems in the region - proximity to Afghanistan, internal situation, regional conflicts... In India and Pakistan, the problems are not lacking. But there is a new fact: the Pakistanis seem open to outside cooperation. They " ask for help from Europeans ". Aid that could intervene in areas such as the police, the judiciary, the strengthening of the rule of law. "In fact," De Kerchove explained to the 27, " there is a window of opportunity », news because until now Pakistan was rather closed to foreign cooperation - at least European - in the field of security. Window all the more interesting as the " Europeans enjoy an excellent reputation there ».
The 27 have all understood the interest of this outstretched hand. And seem determined to react quickly enough. Still need to know about what and how? A technical mission should leave for the region again by spring, bringing together specialists from the Commission and the European Union. It is a question of determining in which sector to act, by which actions, of what nature, according to what volume, and what format it could mobilize. Is it a simple technical, multilateral cooperation or a more structured ESDP mission? It is also necessary to know what financial framework can intervene. The European Commission must therefore examine whether the Instrument for Stability can be mobilized (which makes it possible to obtain funding quickly).
A first conversation, at political level, should take place fairly quickly, at the Gymnich, the informal Council of Foreign Ministers), on 27-28 March, as well as between Heads of State and Government, on the sidelines of the European Council, a few days previously. All of this cannot be totally detached from the Afghan context with an American request for a greater commitment from Europe - a request reiterated within NATO and expressed again recently to the Europeans (see the NATO-European Commission meeting) and which should be discussed in greater depth at the informal meeting of the Ministers of Defense of the 26, in Krakow on February 19-20, as well as at the NATO Summit in Kehl-Strasbourg, at the beginning of April.
