madam president our key position in this report is the counter-insurgency strategy in the eu action plan and i thank mr arlacchi for understanding this
this strategy must be given time to work according to the timetable set by president obama with twenty fourteen as the deadline for the complete afghanisation of military and police operations
the final stage will certainly be political with an agreement reached through negotiation by all afghani parties to the conflict
contact with the taliban is an afghani affair but this should begin when the insurgents cease to feel in a position of strength
aid distribution and the use of private contractors need to be rethought so that they benefit the local population and certainly without paying protection money to local insurgents for the supply routes
equal importance should be accorded to narcotics alongside security for the sake of the lives of european young people
we are strongly against paragraph seventy-one which condemns the use of drones an integral part of the counter-insurgency strategy
what are the european soldiers in the field going to think if the european parliament condemns such an effective weapon in their fight against insurgency
i urge colleagues to vote against the third part of paragraph seventy-one
