Council of the
European Union
Brussels, 14 July 2015
(OR. en)
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COASI 96
CFSP/PESC 373
RELEX 575
COTER 104
JAI 544
POLGEN 115
COHOM 74
COHAFA 68
CIVCOM 136
DEVGEN 120
"I/A" ITEM NOTE
From:
General Secretariat of the Council
To:
Permanent Representatives Committee/Council
Subject:
EU-Pakistan 5-year Engagement Plan - Implementation report 2015
DOCUMENT PARTIALLY ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC (31.08.2015)
1.
The Asia/Oceania Working Party reached agreement on the EU-Pakistan 5-year Engagement
Plan - Implementation report 2015.
2.
At its meeting of 14 July 2015, the Political and Security Committee confirmed the agreement
reached in the Asia/Oceania Working Group.
3.
Coreper is accordingly requested to invite the Council to take note of the EU-Pakistan 5-year
Engagement Plan - Implementation report 2015.
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EU-PAKISTAN 5-YEAR ENGAGEMENT PLAN
IMPLEMENTATION REPORT 2015
1.
Introduction
1.
Since its adoption in 2012, the EU-Pakistan 5-Year Engagement Plan has provided the overall
framework for the European Union (EU)'s engagement with Pakistan, building on the EU-
Pakistan Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development (2004). It is intended to
strengthen EU-Pakistan relations by intensifying dialogues across priority areas including:
political cooperation; security; governance, human rights; migration; trade and energy.
2.
In December 2014, the PSC requested the EU Heads of Mission (HoMs) to provide the
necessary input to the next Report on the state of EU-Pakistan relations – to be presented to
the Council in mid-2015 – which should outline the progress in the implementation of the
EU-Pakistan 5-Year Engagement Plan. On this basis, the annual reporting on the 5-Year
Engagement Plan will replace the annual implementation report on the 2009 Action Plan on
Pakistan, on which the last report was issued in June 2014.
3.
In the reporting period EU-Pakistan relations have been marked by the GSP+ trade
preferences granted to Pakistan with effect from 1 January 2014, creating much positive
attention and visibility for the EU. GSP+ has also provided a framework for deepening
dialogue on implementation of Pakistan's commitments under the 27 international
conventions on governance, human rights, labour and environment covered by the scheme. A
separate report on GSP+ will be presented by the European Commission and the European
External Action Service to the European Parliament and the Council by 1 January 2016.
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4.
The reporting period has been eventful with four months long street protests by two political
parties, the intensification of military operation in North-Waziristan as well as a series of
serious terrorist attacks, often sectarian in nature, and the most deadly attack ever in Pakistan
at an army public school in Peshawar on 16 December 2014, which killed 141 most of whom
children. The EU and Member States have repeatedly expressed their commitment to help
Pakistan tackle these challenges. This commitment of the EU has been reflected by the high
number of political dialogues and official visits held both in Islamabad and Brussels.
Priorities continued to be democracy and good governance, including follow-up to the
recommendations of the EU Election Observation Mission (EOM), human rights, security and
counter terrorism, economic and social reforms, trade and development cooperation.
5.
EU and Member States also maintained a strong engagement in development cooperation in
the reporting period. The EU decided in August 2014 to allocate an indicative amount of €653
million in the new Multi-annual Indicative Programme (MIP) 2014-20 to support Rural
Development, Education and Good Governance, including Democracy, Human Rights and
Rule of Law.
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2.
Political and economic developments
6.
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3.
EU-Pakistan engagement
3.1. Strategic and political
17. With the adoption in 2012 of the 5-Year Engagement Plan, the EU’s relations with Pakistan
have further strengthened and the EU's visibility has improved, culminating with the granting
of GSP+. Regular high level interactions between the EU and Pakistan have been taking place
and two new fora for discussion have been established: local human rights meetings, the first
of which took place on 12 March 2015, and an energy dialogue due to take place later this
year. Further high level political interactions are planned for 2015, including the political
dialogue at Political Directors’ level and a next round of the Strategic Dialogue. The timing of
the next
ad hoc Summit still remains to be decided. The next meeting of the EU-Pakistan
Joint Commission and its sub-groups on Trade, Governance and Human Rights, and
development cooperation in the framework of the EU-Pakistan Cooperation Agreement
(2004) are also scheduled to take place in the second semester of 2015.
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3.2. Security
- Counter-Terrorism (CT) Dialogue and Cooperation
18. The fourth EU-Pakistan CT Dialogue took place in Islamabad on 24 February 2015 between
the EU (EEAS) at the level of Managing Director accompanied by the chair of COTER and
Pakistan (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) at the level of Additional Secretary. The dialogue also
involved on the Pakistani side a range of relevant ministries and agencies at federal and
provincial level, as well as representatives from the armed forces. The key objective of the CT
dialogue was to obtain commitment from the Pakistani government to work further with the
EU on CT related issues. In this respect the dialogue was a significant step forward in
securing EU-Pakistan CT engagement, and a set of joint conclusions were adopted, clearly
signalling political commitment from both sides to work together on key priority areas
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19. On the operational side, the EU continued to implement activities on Rule of Law, including
CT.
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- Disarmament and Non-proliferation
20. The first ever sectoral dialogue on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation took place in
Islamabad on 16 June 2014. This dialogue highlighted the benefits of engagement in order to
bridge gaps and identify possible areas of cooperation.
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- Staff talks
21. Defence issues are now also part of the bilateral agenda following the first EU-Pakistan Staff
talks in Brussels on 18-19 April 2013 and the visit of the EU Chairman Military Committee
on 16-18 June 2013.
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3.3. Democracy, Governance, Human Rights and Socio-Economic Development
- Democracy
22. The EU has a longstanding commitment to democracy in Pakistan and has been invited to
observe three Parliamentary elections in 2002, 2008 and 2013. The 2013 EU Election
Observation Mission made a number of recommendations for further strengthening the
electoral framework in Pakistan and the EU has since consistently advocated for their
implementation, including in the framework of the recently established parliamentary reform
committee and underlined its readiness to support the process. As part of strengthened
parliamentary exchanges, the Chairman of the Pakistani Senate visited Brussels on 27-30
January 2015 and was received by President Martin Schulz, while a Delegation of the
European Parliament visited Pakistan on 16-20 February, holding a number of high level
meetings, including with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The mission raised a number of key
issues on democracy, governance, human rights and counter terrorism. It also met with the
newly established EU friendship group in the National Assembly and it was agreed to keep
close contact between the two groups.
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23. Currently the EU has a democracy portfolio for improving elections and strengthening
parliamentary institutions. This includes support for the Federal and Provincial Assemblies.
Two multi-facetted programs under the Instrument contributing to Peace and Stability have
also been rolled out. Interventions have covered the demand side (domestic election
observation, work on electoral reform and advocacy with parliamentarians, politicians and the
media) and the supply side (support to the Election Commission of Pakistan). An evaluation
of the overall EU electoral portfolio in Pakistan confirmed the high relevance of EU support
to all key stakeholders simultaneously as compared to only focusing on some. This, and
specifically the support to the demand side, had enabled the EU to position itself strategically
as a committed donor and provided a basis for longer-term impact. The evaluation
recommended building upon this investment with a similar approach, enhancing civil society
outreach, strengthening capacity building of the supply side and working on strong
collaborative measures with all stakeholders.
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- Governance
24. The EU continued to provide assistance via the Public Financial Management Support
Programme for Pakistan (PFM-SPP) to the Government of Sindh and the Federal
Government. The program supports Public Financial Management (PFM) reform strategies
and action plans, budgeting reforms, macroeconomic forecasts and other selected PFM areas.
Initiated in 2014, it has an expected duration of five years. It uses the latest findings of Public
Expenditure and Financial Accountability assessments for the Federal Government and the
Government of Sindh. In Sindh, the programme is led by the provincial Government and EU
cooperation support is aligned with World Bank assistance. At Federal level PFM reforms are
being developed by the Federal Government with EU assistance. At the same time, DFID is
supporting PFM reforms in the provinces of KP and Punjab.
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- Human Rights
25. In the area of Human Rights, the EU together with Member States continued to urge Pakistan
to improve its human rights record based on the human rights country strategy that identifies
four priority areas: Freedom of Religion or Belief, Women’s Rights, Death Penalty and
Access to Justice. In the first month of 2015, the EU has devoted particular attention to lobby
against the death penalty, following the decision by Pakistan to lift the moratorium on the
death penalty and resume executions. Interventions are made through a combination of
dialogue meetings, demarches and public statements as well as through regular interactions
and support to the active Human Rights civil society organizations. The EU Special
Representative for Human Rights visited Pakistan in October 2014 and the visit proved useful
in conveying strong messages on these issues. The granting of GSP+ has provided the EU
with increased leverage in the field of human rights and efforts have been made to ensure that
this is utilized. This has included a prominent place for GSP+ and human rights in all
dialogue meetings and at all levels, including the general political dialogues and dedicated
human rights dialogues. The latter comprises the Human Rights Subgroup of the Joint
Commission that met in June 2014, as well as Human Rights meetings at local level. The first
local meeting was held on 12 March 2015 between the EU Delegation and the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and proved a useful forum for an informal and constructive exchange on EU's
concerns. A key challenge for the coming months will be to ensure that Pakistan is able to
demonstrate progress in effectively implementing its commitments under GSP+ - in particular
on human rights and labor rights
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26. The EU provided four new grants under
EIDHR in 2014, three of which concern actions to
fight violence against women and one of which relates to economic empowerment of women.
Ongoing grants under EIDHR included actions related to the rights of the child and freedom
of religion or belief, as well as a number of awareness raising activities on GSP+ obligations
and visibility of EU Guidelines. Another call of proposal will take place in 2015.
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- Socio-Economic Development
27. Rural development is the main focal sector of the EU-Pakistan 2014-2020 MIP. The EU
provides support to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with focus on Malakand Division, through an
ambitious budget support programme for the implementation of the provincial policy of
"
Community Driven Local Development", technical assistance to Provincial and District
level authorities, and grants to the local NGO Sahrad Rural Support Programme. Building on
the existing legal framework of decentralisation, the intervention aims to support and
institutionalize a framework enabling district authorities to directly involve Community Based
Organisations in the delivery of basic front line services. A similar programme
"SUCCESS"
has been accepted for Sindh, which builds on and expands a Government funded programme
on community development. Similarly, under the 2015 AAP an expansion of the ongoing
Balochistan Community Development Programme is proposed. Within its rural development
activities, the EU is also funding a project aimed at refugee affected and hosting areas
(
RAHA) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, implemented by UNDP. This project is
closing in September 2015 and an external review will assess progress and quality of
implementation.
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Within the thematic line 'Non State Actors-Local Authorities', the EU is committed to pilot
small interventions where local authorities and communities are engaged into processes of
local development, testing enhanced forms of collaboration and coordination to improve
resource allocation. The EU is also funding a nutrition programme in Sindh. The project is
now half-way through. A mid-term review is on-going, and the implementing partners are
finalising an exit strategy to ensure continuation of the services after 2016.
28. Education (including basic and technical and vocational education) is the second focal sector
of the EU-Pakistan 2014-2020 MIP. Currently EU is funding the technical and vocational
education and training (
TVET) through two main projects. "Support to the TVET Sector in
Pakistan (TVET I)" focuses on building the capacities of the provincial TVET authorities and
also providing technical and vocational training and skills to about 40,000 youth and women
in rural areas of Pakistan. "Supporting TVET Reform in Pakistan (TVET II)" focuses on
improving the governance of the TVET sector, developing curricula, training teachers as well
as educating 100,000 trainees. The two ongoing projects will end by 2016. The mid-term
reviews of these two projects were carried out in 2014. The findings indicated overall
satisfactory progress. Currently, the EU is planning the next phase of its support to the TVET
sector which will build on the outcomes of the ongoing TVET projects. An in-house
identification has been carried out and a formulation is planned in May and June.
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3.4. Trade and Investment
29. Trade and investment between the EU and Pakistan has increased in 2014. The largest
increase of more than €1 billion (or almost 25%) was in Pakistan's exports to the EU,
primarily in the areas of textiles, leather and agriculture. This can largely be attributed to the
increased market access through GSP+ and therefore GSP+ demonstrated that it has a real
economic impact. EU's exports to Pakistan have also increased although at a much more
modest level. There is considered to be a potential for increased EU investments in Pakistan,
but this is made difficult by real and perceived security challenges, power shortages and a
difficult regulatory and business environment. EU and Member States will address these
issues through a closer dialogue with the Government on economic reforms, in the context of
the IMF programme and a stronger dialogue on energy (the first meeting of which is expected
in 2015). At the same time, efforts will be made to address long-standing trade irritants, such
as an import ban on certain bovine products from the EU, export taxes as well as sanitary and
phytosanitary and pharma issues.
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operation have contributed to the promotion of the GSP+ system, an endeavour which will
require steady commitment even in future
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3.5. Energy
30. The energy crisis remains highly acute in Pakistan, as illustrated by the still long hours of
load-shedding (around 5.000 Megawatt missing in the grid), the shortage of fuel for more than
a week in large cities in February 2015, a general shortage of gas essential for industrial
production and the episodes of electricity blackout in several parts of the country. In the
beginning of its tenure, the PML-N Government adopted a National Energy Policy 2013-18,
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Given the critical importance of this issue and the increasing engagement of the EU and
Member States in this field, the idea to establish an EU-Pakistan energy dialogue was
endorsed at the Strategic Dialogue on 25 March 2014 and a final decision was reached at the
Joint Commission on 24 June 2014. The first edition of this dialogue is scheduled for the 2nd
semester of 2015. It will offer an opportunity to discuss the Government's policy on energy
reform (e.g. circular debt, privatization) and regional energy projects (e.g. TAPI, CASA
1000), address obstacles to private investment of European companies, enhance coordination
of funding for energy related projects and technical assistance on the running of an efficient
and clean energy market. Discussions related to climate change are also envisaged in the
framework of the dialogue. Following the signing last year of a European Investment
Bank €100 million credit for a hydel project in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa co-funded with
Germany, the Bank is looking into further investments in Pakistan in the field of wind and
hydel.
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3.6. Sectoral cooperation
- Migration
31. Following the entry into force of the EU Readmission Agreement (EURA) with Pakistan on 1
December 2010, a considerable number of Member States continue to express concerns about
delays in the processing of applications and the issuance of Pakistani travel documents to the
returnees. However, there have recently been signs of willingness by Pakistan to improve the
situation. The third meeting of the Joint Readmission Committee (JRC), held in October
2014, discussed how to make progress on a number of issues, including procedures for
submission of applications, documentation required and an electronic platform for the
streamlining of the application procedure and reducing processing time in the future. The
effects of this are still not evident at all in many Member States and continued vigilance and
resolute action is needed to address this problem. The next JRC will need to take stock of
progress and discuss ways to ensure full implementation of the agreement. The discussion
will also have to be carried out in the context of the implementation of the EU pilot initiative
on return, for which Pakistan has been chosen as one of the pilot countries. At the same time,
efforts will continue to develop a dialogue and to assist the Pakistani authorities on migration
management, including in the context of regional cooperation under the Silk Route Project.
- Science and Technology
32. Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) has been designated by the Ministry of Science and
Technology of the Government of Pakistan to act as a partner to promote the HORIZON 2020
Programme in Pakistan. The EU Delegation is working closely with the PSF to organize
awareness seminars in all provinces targeting a broader audience comprising research and
technology, academia and entrepreneurs. The first of these will be held in Karachi in May
2015 while seminars in other provinces will be organized later. In all these seminars the
Regional Counsellor for Science and Technology based in the Delhi Delegation will be
closely involved. Two such seminars were held in 2014, one each in Islamabad and Lahore.
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- Higher education
33. Pakistani students and scholars have benefited from Erasmus Mundus scholarships since
2009. In 2014, 241 students and scholars from Pakistan were selected for Erasmus Mundus
scholarships. Discussions are on-going to strengthen the cooperation with the Member States
to jointly promote the higher education programs and also to further engage with the Erasmus
Mundus Alumni Association in Pakistan. The new programme Erasmus+ opened the capacity
building action to Asia, which will provide an opportunity to strengthen links between higher
education programs and bilateral education programs (for example in teachers training).
- Humanitarian assistance
34. The military operations in North Waziristan and in Bara area in Khyber agency led to further
displacements of around 770,000 people. At the beginning of 2015, the Government of
Pakistan announced an ambitious Operational Return Plan for an estimated 125,000 displaced
families to their areas of origin in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in 2015.
Currently, around 238.000 families still remain internally displaced in Pakistan and sustained
humanitarian access to displaced population continues to challenge humanitarian
organisations 'capacity to meet the needs of affected populations.
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35.
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36. Return of refugees to Afghanistan has increased substantially since the Government's actions
in response to the Peshawar school attack. Up until the end of March 2015, 13,045 refugees
repatriated. The increase in returns from 2014 is substantial, most notably from Mirpur,
Peshawar and Haripur districts, in which elevated numbers of arrests, detentions and evictions
have been reported. In total, there are some 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees and a
similar estimated number of unregistered refugees, many of whom are already the second or
third generation. As reported by IOM, most of the returning Afghans have spent between 15-
25 years outside of Afghanistan, and as such could face challenges reintegrating. Absorption
capacity in Afghanistan remains limited.
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37. ECHO also focused renewed attention on the nutrition agenda in Sindh province in
recognition of the persistent nutritional crisis that remains deeply entrenched due to the
repeated natural disasters and underlying structural vulnerabilities existing before the massive
flood crisis in 2010. The province is yet again hit by a prolonged drought crisis that has
persisted mainly in the Thar Desert region since late 2013. Available reports indicate massive
depletion of the already scarce livelihoods options /coping capacities and deterioration in
nutritional status. Addressing the high rates of under-nutrition in Sindh requires a combination
of comprehensive multi-sector humanitarian assistance with a commitment to facilitate
transition towards longer-term multi-sector approaches to build resilience. ECHO's Sindh
2015 response will target the drought affected districts on priority basis.
4. CONCLUSIONS AND WAY FORWARD
38. Pakistan remains of key importance to the European Union. It is central to regional stability
and security and as such also to the security of the EU, not least since it is at the front line in
the fight against terrorism domestically, regionally and globally. Pakistan is also a major
transit hub for the global trade in illicit narcotics and a major sending state for irregular
migration to the EU. At the same time, a large population of Pakistani origin resides legally in
the EU and is part of our societies and an important source of remittances for the Pakistani
economy. EU-Pakistan relations received new momentum with the adoption of the 5-year
Engagement Plan in 2012. It is of the utmost importance that the EU remains actively
engaged with Pakistan.
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39. EU-Pakistan relations have expanded in recent years and some progress has been made within
the framework of the 5-years Engagement Plan. Granting GSP+ to Pakistan has given the EU
leverage on human rights, labour standards and governance issues. The impact of GSP+ on
trade is so far very positive for Pakistan.
40. However, at the same time there are factors that threaten to affect the relationship negatively
in the future.
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Most prominent of these are
concerns on the human rights front - where there have been significant steps backwards - in
particular the decision of Pakistan to resume executions, but also issues related freedom of
religion and belief and protection of minorities, access to justice, women's rights and the
situation of human rights defenders - and the consequences that these concerns may have on
GSP+.
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41.
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