EUPOL DEPLOYMENT TO U.S. PRTS -- REQUEST FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 001127 NOFORN SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2019 TAGS: MARR MOPS PREL EUN SUBJECT: EUPOL DEPLOYMENT TO U.S. PRTS -- REQUEST FOR GUIDANCE REF: KABUL 1270 BRUSSELS 00001127 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Christopher Murray for reasons 1 .4(b) and (d). ¶1. (U) This is a request for guidance. Please see paragraph ¶7. ¶2. (C) SUMMARY: On May 27, EUPOL Political Advisor Jean-Baptiste Valmary and a staffer had met with USEU political officers to provide an update on the EU civilian police mission to Afghanistan, focusing on its training activities in Kabul and the deployment of EU civilian police to Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Valmary also asked for an update on the status of U.S. efforts to determine suitable arrangements to permit EU civilian police to deploy to U.S.-led PRTs in Regional Command-East. He reinforced the EU's desire to obtain a formal technical agreement with the U.S. before deploying civilian police to U.S.-led PRTs and asked that we inform the EU if this will not be possible. On July 30-31, Brussels-based EUPOL staffer Oceane Lahanque followed up Valmary's request and asked for a response by September on U.S. willingness to negotiate a formal technical agreement. END SUMMARY. EU Activities and Civpol Deployment Status ¶3. (C) EUPOL now comprises about 265 international staff, including both civilian police and support personnel, according to Lahanque, well short of the EU's goal of deploying 400 civpol to Afghanistan. A renewed call for contributors was launched on July 31. Four non-EU members -- Canada, Norway, New Zealand, and Croatia -- are providing personnel along with 20 EU Member States. Most EUPOL employees are stationed in Kabul, where the EU has been concentrating its training efforts on the Kabul city police. Similar training campaigns are to be launched in Herat, Baghdis and Mazar-e-Sharif, with the goal being to help police secure the main Afghan cities. In May, Valmary said that Minister of the Interior Atmar had given EUPOL a leading role in anti-corruption work and that UNDP has asked EUPOL to oversee training the police for upcoming elections. ¶4. (C) About 90 EU civpol have now been deployed to work with Provincial Reconstruction Teams, Lahanque said. EU civpol have joined 14 PRTs, including PRTs led by EU Member States and non-EU countries like New Zealand, Norway, and Canada. Most recently, Lahanque said, the EU had finalized a technical agreement with the Czech Republic to permit deployment to the Czech PRT in Loghar Province. The EU hopes to deploy another 15 civpol to U.S.-led PRTs in ISAF's Regional Command-East, including 5 personnel to Laghman Province and 10 to PRT Jalalabad, and then possibly to other PRTs in the area (REFTEL). Progress on Bilateral Technical Agreements ¶5. (C) Lahanque noted that with the signing of the agreement with the Czech Republic, the EU has bilateral technical arrangements in place with all PRT lead nations other than the U.S. and Turkey. The agreements cover logistical, medical and transport arrangements as well as, most importantly, in extremis support. Valmary said having a formal agreement was "quite important" as the EU wanted written assurances that "in case of need our people will be extracted." Valmary asked that the U.S. inform the EU if a bilateral EU-U.S. agreement was not possible, a request Lahanque repeated. When pressed, Valmary was unable to provide a bottom line on whether the EU would be able to deploy EU civpol to the U.S.-led PRT in the absence of a formal agreement. In Kabul, the EU works with ISAF without a formal agreement, relying upon ISAF Standard Operating Procedures, an arrangement which Valmary called "not very satisfactory." Deployment to RC-East ¶6. (C) Valmary and Lahanque were unclear about the status of local negotiations to deploy EU civpol to RC-East and whether U.S. officials on the ground have the authority to sign a technical agreement. Lahanque requested a response by September on whether the USG is willing to negotiate a BRUSSELS 00001127 002 OF 002 technical arrangement, and with whom EUPOL should discuss the details, as EUPOL will have to brief the EU Political and Security Committee on the status of its deployment to RC-East next month. Lahanque said EUPOL Head of Mission Kai Vittrup had met with U.S. military commanders and the PRT Jalalabad PolAd on July 14 in Bagram, where Vittrup confirmed EUPOL's intent to deploy to RC-East and to be co-located with Dyncorp and CSTC-A personnel. EUPOL, however, is still unclear about whether U.S. commanders on the ground can sign a formal agreement. At the meeting in Bagram, Vittrup reportedly assured the U.S. that EUPOL would bring vehicles and communications equipment, but would need housing, logistical, and in extremis support. Lahanque provided USEU with several example agreements -- between EUPOL and Norway, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic -- which USEU will share with EUR/ERA and SCA/A. Guidance Request ¶7. (SBU) Request update on the status of arrangements for deploying EU civpol to RC-East and whether we should continue to encourage EUPOL to deploy civpol to RC-East. Also request specific guidance in response to EU request on whether the U.S. is willing to initiate negotiations on a formal technical agreement, including assurances of in extremis support to EU civpol. The technical agreement question was first raised with us in letters from EU Council Secretariat officials Pedro Serrano and Javier Solana in the spring of ¶2007. ¶8. (C) Comment: The immediate benefits of a deployment of 15 EU civilian police to RC-East may be fairly limited, but there could be value in identifying a formula to elicit broader EU civpol deployment. Taken in the context of the total 90 EU civpol deployed outside Kabul in PRTs throughout Afghanistan, a further 15 would appear to be a measurable contribution. The EU views EUPOL as one of its flagship contributions to Afghanistan. Permitting EUPOL to deploy to U.S. PRTs could boost our ability to shape this and future EU civilian missions and to solicit greater EU contributions from the EU in Afghanistan generally. End Comment. .