Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-08-Speech-2-089"
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"en.20080708.5.2-089"2
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"Madam President, I will try to be brief. I will just make three remarks. The first is on Pakistan. It is absolutely clear that it is very important to work on the border area also, and I think also to exploit this window of opportunity that is there following the new formation of the government in Pakistan.
But at the same time we already see rising tensions there, and hopefully these will not, of course, jeopardise the somewhat improved bilateral exchanges at grass-root level.
We are also working, therefore, in the border areas and we see that regional cooperation, including border management and regional trade facilities, is important, and we also support the G8 dialogue initiative that has been started with Germany on Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is my first remark.
My second remark is on justice. Indeed, we think that good governance is of course important and this goes hand-in-hand with police and justice. If there is impunity the police can do what they want. There has to be a good system of justice. Therefore, together with the Council, which has been working on police, we the Commission have been working very strongly on justice and we have, therefore, contributed substantially to shaping Afghanistan’s national justice strategy and programme and again this has to be a sustainable programme which means for the long term.
There is a dedicated window, this is the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) for the justice sector to which we plan to contribute also from Afghanistan’s bilateral programme and we have delivered on the process and promise already at the Rome Conference, but of course a lot of reforms are necessary.
My third and last remark is on rural development. The Paris Conference has clearly shown that our focus has to be very strong on rural development. I must say we have from the beginning also had this as one of the important sectors and have worked on that. We are strongly engaged in continuing and in providing economic alternatives to opium poppy production.
We also – and this is so to say, the news spin – improve rural infrastructures through river-basin management and irrigation and improve local seeds and animal breeding. And I personally think it is highly interesting to look into a regional approach, for instance in the north, with cooperation with Tajikistan on hydro-power for electricity and for gaining water for irrigation of fields, thus of course giving much better food production for the Afghan population, which could bring them away from drugs.
Thus we are indeed looking forward to a continued close and fruitful joint cooperation with Parliament because it will be for the long haul that we are there, and I do hope we get your support for the policy as such – for the strategy, but also for the implementation. We know it is taxpayers’ money but I think we have to be there and work together with you for the stability of Afghanistan."@en1
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