Afghanistan: the Eupol mission still understaffed, why?

(BRUSSELS2) While the international community is gathered, in London, at the bedside of Afghanistan – for the seventh time in nine years! (1) —, it is to be feared that the declarations of one day will remain a dead letter the next day. Months pass and little changes (2). Example: the police mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL in Afghanistan) has thus still not reached its full capacity, due to a lack of personnel (barely 300 out of 400 have been recruited), the availability (not to say the will) of EU Member States to provide the missing elements, also due to logistical and security problems. As a result, the extension of EUPOL in all the provinces (3) is hampered, as explained on Monday by Kees Klompenhouwer, the head of the CPCC (the civilian EU General Staff), before the deputies of the defense sub-committee of the European Parliament.

Salaries, logistics, protection forces. « I want the mission to cover the whole country. But for that we need more
workforce ». thus explained Klompenhouwer. “An effort has been made to ensure that our police officers are better paid. The per diem was too low. It has been increased. » But that does not really seem to be enough to attract vocations! “States must also provide us with accommodation, logistics, protection forces so that we can go to the provinces where we have to go. And that's the problem. " We could not be clearer !

Disagree with NATO. The absence of a security agreement between the EU and NATO (because of the Turkish-Cypriot problems) also poses some concern. " We operate in a gray area ».

We are here for at least 5 or 10 years. As for the relay by the Afghan forces, we must not dream. " It will take more time but it is
toilet bag. says Klompenhouwer. " Frankly to ensure the success of the mission we need a schedule of at least 5 years, 10 years. Because the country has been completely devastated in 35 years of war. Many police officers, for example, are illiterate. » In the meantime, it is sometimes not easy. Thus there are currently within the Afghan Ministry of the Interior, 4 units which ensure the collection and analysis of information, in a completely independent and uncoordinated manner. " A single responsible entity would be
desirable Considers the head of the CPCC. And EUPOL, which received "intelligence" in its training bag, is tearing its hair out...

(1) Petersberg-Bonn 2001, Berlin 2004, London 2006 (compact), Rome 2007 (rule of law), Paris 2008, The Hague 2009

(2) Read:Eupol Afghanistan: we are progressing, slowly, too slowly...
A conference convened to solve the problems of Eupol Afghanistan
The EU Action Plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan

(3) Read: Missions in Iraq, Afghanistan... Europe is recruiting