Commission pledges €1.2 billion support to Afghanistan
The European Commission has pledged €1.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan over the next four years, at the 2020 Geneva Conference titled “Peace, Prosperity and Self-Reliance”.
“With intra-Afghan peace negotiations having started, but terrible violence still causing great suffering for the Afghan people,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell said on Tuesday, during the fund-raising conference.
He added that as Afghanistan is “at crossroads”, the EU’s support is conditional, and its requirements are laid out in a paper co-authored by the EU and other key international partners of the country. The assistance is conditional upon an Afghan-owned, Afghan-led peace process that builds on the political and social achievements of the last 19 years and under the term that democracy, human rights, and social progress are protected.
“While it must never become a political instrument, humanitarian assistance, International Humanitarian Law and protection of civilians must be central in the ongoing Afghan Peace Process negotiations,” Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic said.
He added that the financial aid “cannot wait” for the end of the peace negotiations and it “must begin now,” as civilian rights need to be protected and international humanitarian law needs to be upheld.
Similarly, the Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, who announced the EU’s pledge, said that the bloc’s assistance aims to support “the Afghan authorities’ agenda for democratic, sustainable development and modernisation, help to lift people out of poverty, improve governance, reduce corruption and enhance the daily lives of the Afghan people.”
The bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell also called for an immediate ceasefire in the country, stressing that any move to support the creation of an Islamic Emirate would affect the bloc’s support. “A ceasefire should not be an outcome of the (peace) processs, it should accompany the process from today…Any attempt to restore an Islamic emirate would have an impact on our political and financial engagement,” Borrell said.