This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS BRUSSELS 001527 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USAID FOR ANE/SA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL EAID AF UNSC USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: EC WILL SPEND 8.5M EUROS ON AFGHAN ELECTIONS 
 
REF: STATE 61560 
 
¶1.  (U) On April 18, PolOff delivered Reftel demarche on 
funding for Afghanistan's parliamentary elections to Jonathan 
Hatwell, European Commission (EC) desk officer for 
Afghanistan.  Hatwell reiterated that the EC "fully shares 
the U.S. view on the importance of the parliamentary 
elections," and confirmed the EC is planning to spend 8.5 
million Euros - approximately $11 million - on the elections, 
as previously committed.  (NOTE:  This number is slightly 
less than the amount stated in Reftel.  END NOTE.).  He said 
he thinks it unlikely this number will increase, since the EC 
is already making significant contributions to democracy 
building in other areas. 
 
¶2.  (U) Specifically, he mentioned the EC's plan to send some 
sort of election monitoring mission to Afghanistan for the 
elections, a commitment of both resources and personnel. 
This monitoring mission would either take the form of the 
EU's standard "Election Observation Mission" (EOM) package, 
usually headed by a Member of the European Parliament, or it 
could be a smaller and more low-key "Democracy and Election 
Support Mission" (DESM), along the lines of the team the EU 
sent to monitor Afghanistan's presidential elections.  The EC 
is expected to decide in the next week or two which package 
it will send. 
 
¶3.  (U) Hatwell also mentioned the EC's commitment to 
post-election democracy-building efforts.  Such commitments 
include a contribution to a UNDP/French project to train 
parliamentarians, and a recently-announced 30-million-Euro 
contribution to the UNDP'S Law & Order Trust Fund for 
Afghanistan (LOTFA).  These contributions all come from the 
same pot of money, Hatwell said, and allocating more money 
for elections would mean shortchanging other areas such as 
infrastructure and health.  Hatwell had no specific details 
on member state contributions for the elections. 
 
SCHNABEL 
.