Council of the European Union

Francesc Vendrell, Former EU special representative for Afghanistan

Having held the position of the European Union’s Special Representative for Afghanistan since July 2002, I seek to foster the establishment of a democratic, accountable and sustainable Afghan State, while paying special attention to security and stabilisation, good governance, judicial and security- sector reform, human rights, democratisation and transitional justice.

Supported by four advisers, I monitor the main political, security, human rights and governance developments in Afghanistan, report on them regularly to High Representative Javier Solana and all the EU capitals, and provide advice and good offices where appropriate. To this end, I maintain close contacts with a wide range of Afghan interlocutors. Regular visits to the provinces, including the remote and/or insurgency-affected ones, contribute to the ever expanding network of contacts throughout the country of – amongst others – government and security officials, tribal elders, human rights and political party activists and community leaders.

I participate in several formal and informal policy-making bodies, notably the Policy Action Group (PAG), established by the President as a temporary crisis-management group to address urgent insurgency-related issues in the South-West of the country. Other coordinating and policy-making bodies relate to police reform, disarmament, counter-narcotics, reconstruction, human rights, gender and judicial reform.

I keep in close contact with the European Commission delegation, the EU Heads of Mission and heads of other diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, as well as the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and NATO. I regularly travel to Brussels and other EU capitals to provide briefings to the various EU fora, as well as Members States' government ministers, senior government officials and parliamentarians.

EUSR Vendrell on suicide bombing in Kandahar, 18 February 2008