EU ponders Afghanistan police mission

The EU is considering establishing a police mission in Afghanistan, as NATO struggles to get more European troops to stabilise the country.

Foreign ministers will discuss the possibility of sending the mission to Afghanistan when they meet in Brussels on 11 December.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, himself a former secretary-general of NATO, supports sending a police mission to Afghanistan. An EU fact-finding mission is in the region.

Many member states are currently involved in operations in Afghanistan although the EU itself has shied away from getting involved so far, amid tension between the US and NATO’s European members.

At a NATO summit in Riga on 28-29 November, US President George W. Bush urged EU countries to do more to help bolster Afghanistan’s faltering efforts to counter a Taliban insurgency, five years after the US-led invasion.

Although Poland, Spain and Bulgaria offered more soldiers, the total is likely to fall well short of calls from the UK, Poland, the Netherlands and the US to supply an extra 2,500 troops.

The Dutch are urging the EU to become involved in the south of the country, where the Netherlands took control of a NATO mission at the beginning of November.

One EU diplomat said the mission could be similar to the EU’s current police mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"It would give maximum leverage for minimum cost," he said, referring to the practice of placing advisors in key ministries.

The EU is also considering a mission that would help with judicial reform.

The EU is considering establishing a police mission in Afghanistan, as NATO struggles to get more European troops to stabilise the country.