EUPOL: READY FOR LONG-TERM COMMITMENT IN AN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 001128

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2019
TAGS: MARR PREL AF EUN
SUBJECT: EUPOL: READY FOR LONG-TERM COMMITMENT IN AN
ATMOSPHERE OF APPRECIATION

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Christopher Murray for reasons 1
.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: On August 11, EU Civilian Operations
Commander, Kees Klompenhouwer, met with Senate Foreign
Relations Committee staffers to discuss the EU's efforts to
reform and train the Afghan police forces. Klompenhouwer
acknowledged that Afghanistan is unlikely to become a South
Asian Switzerland anytime soon, but said a return to the
relative stability of King Zahir Shah's reign would be an
acceptable outcome. He said getting Afghanistan to that
point, however, will take at least 10 years. Turning to the
EUPOL police mission, he said the EU has limited resources,
given the reluctance of national and local police forces in
EU Member States to release personnel for an overseas
operation. Even so, he said EUPOL is expanding and is doing
important work by "building from the top down" to create a
civil police force, starting with the Kabul city police.
Asked how to solicit greater contributions from European
countries, Klompenhouwer said the key is making civilian
action more visible and creating an "atmosphere of
appreciation" rather than denigrating European efforts for
their small numbers of personnel. Klompenhouwer said EUPOL
can make an important contribution of niche expertise, even
if its numbers are swamped by the U.S.-led training effort.
Klompenhouwer praised U.S. and NATO efforts to develop the
Afghan police from the bottom up, but said criticism of the
EU's top-down civil policing approach by NATO and U.S.
officials weakens European commitment to the mission. He
concluded by noting that EUPOL is increasingly deploying
police out to the provinces, including in the dangerous
south, but faces logistical and force protection challenges
that it cannot resolve without assistance from PRT lead
nations. End Summary.

AT LEAST 10 YEARS


2. (SBU) On August 11, EU Civilian Operations Commander and
Director of the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability
(CPCC),Kees Klompenhouwer, met with Senate Foreign Relations
Committee stl real "Qern as civilian operations
commander. With EU police forces already supporting missions
in Kosovo, Bosnia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it
is difficult to convince national and local police
authorities to release their personnel for a mission in
Afghanistan. Even so, he said, the EUPOL mission has grown
to more than 250 and should reach 300 personnel shortly, with
the eventual goal of a 400-strong mission. Klompenhouwer
speculated that additional funds from the EU's Common Foreign
and Security Policy budget, or even from the European
Commission, to reimburse local police forces for their
contributions could help facilitate further contributions.
Eighty percent of the personnel in EU police missions are
active duty police, with only 20 percent being contractors.
Contributing Member States not only have to release these
active duty personnel for missions, but also provide training
for them in addition to the week-long introductory training
they receive once deployed. Meanwhile, the attrition rate
for trained police in Afghanistan is 50 percent after one

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year, he reported. This loss of trained personnel carries
the obvious implications, Klompenhouwer said.

CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE OF APPRECIATION


5. (C) The Senate staffers asked what the U.S. can do to
help ensure greater EU contributions to police training,
Klompenhouwer said there are two keys: 1) make civilian,
rather than military, efforts more visible; 2) create an
"atmosphere of appreciation" for European contributions. Too
often, Klompenhouwer said, NATO and U.S. officials belittle
the EU's contribution as too small, rather than focusing on
the added value it provides. Klompenhouwer praised U.S.
police training efforts through the Focused District
Development (FDD) program and said NATO will make an
important contribution. Acknowledging that some NATO-EU
rivalry is natural, he said the competition and criticism
from NATO quarters has been damaging in the case of
Afghanistan. He welcomed NATO's "determined effort" to fill
the need for a gendarmerie force for district-level action,
but said criticism from NATO and U.S. officials of the EU's
efforts weakened European political will to contribute to
EUPOL. If civil policing is of value as a complement to FDD,
he said, the U.S. should not belittle EUPOL's role in
providing top-down training or criticize EUPOL for not
undertaking a mission it is not designed to do.
Klompenhouwer had linked these remarks to the gendarmerie
initiative of earlier this year.

COORDINATION IS THE KEY


6. (C) On the other hand, Klompenhouwer praised CSTC-A and
Maj. Gen. Formica for productive cooperation in theater.
Citing one specific case, Klompenhouwer said three EUPOL
civpol -- provided by non-EU country New Zealand -- had
trained thousands of Afghan police at the regional training
center in Bamyan province. He said the training was
organized by Dyncorp and paid for by the United States, but
executed principally by EUPOL officers. Klompenhouwer said
this example demonstrates how close cooperation leads to
successful efforts. He also argued that this example shows
that numbers are not the only key to success; the niche
expertise provided by EUPOL also has value.


7. (C) Klompenhouwer closed by describing EUPOL's efforts
to take on a greater role in the provinces. He said EU
civpol were present even in dangerous provinces like Helmand
and Kandahar. The key challenge is logistical, he argued.
EU civpol need to integrate into PRTs to be successful, but
PRTs -- even those from EU Member States -- often have
different priorities. In one case, Klompenhouwer said he had
to speak to an EU Member State defense minister just to
ensure that his personnel would have beds at a PRT. With
essential force protection and logistical support from the
PRTs, he said, EUPOL can establish a useful presence at the
provincial level. (Comment: The CPCC has signed technical
arrangements with all PRT lead nations except the U.S. and
Turkey to allow for logistical and in extremis support. The
EU's request to pursue a similar formal agreement with the
U.S. will be reported septel.)


8. (U) Senate staffdel departed post prior to clearing this
message.
.