BRUSSELS / DNA : The European Union today reconfirmed its long-standing solidarity and partnership with the people of Afghanistan, pledging support of €1.2 billion over the period 2021–2025 in both long-term and emergency assistance at the 2020 Afghanistan Conference “Peace, Prosperity and Self-Reliance”.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, speaking at the opening session of the conference, said: “With intraAfghan peace negotiations having started, but terrible violence still causing great suffering for the

Afghan people, Afghanistan is at a crossroads. The Afghan people can count on the European Union’s support for a prosperous and peaceful future for their country, but our support relies on democracy, human rights, and social progress being protected.”

Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, who announced the EU’s pledge at the conference and participated in a side event on anti-corruption, said: “A pledge of €1.2 billion for the next four years illustrates our commitment to the Afghan people. Our assistance will support the Afghan authorities’ agenda for democratic, sustainable development and modernisation, helping to lift people out of poverty, improve governance, reduce corruption and enhance the daily lives of the Afghan people.”

Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, who co-hosted a side event on sustainable peace building, as well as a high-level meeting on international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians in Afghanistan ahead of the conference, said: “We are boosting our humanitarian aid to help those most in need. While it must never become a political instrument, humanitarian assistance, International Humanitarian Law and protection of civilians must be central in the ongoing Afghan Peace Process negotiations.

The protection of civilian lives and respect of International Humanitarian Law in conflict cannot wait for the end of the peace negotiations. It must begin now.”

Significant but conditional support The significant financial commitment demonstrates that the EU is unwavering in its determination to promote a peaceful, democratic, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan, deserved and long awaited by its people, and makes clear that EU development assistance is based on clear conditions and principles.

These conditions are laid out in a paper co-authored by the EU and other key international partners of the country, which combined provide 80% of international assistance to Afghanistan. As reiterated by High Representative/Vice-President Borrell and Commissioner Urpilainen at the Conference, the EU’s support to Afghanistan is conditional upon an inclusive, Afghan-owned, Afghan-led peace process that builds on the political and social achievements of the last 19 years. Preserving democratic pluralism, the constitutional order, institutional transparency and accountability, and the rule of law, further promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially for women, children and minorities and including freedom of media, and pursuing sustainable peace, development and prosperity, are essential for Afghanistan’s future.

Many of the principles for EU and international support are reflected in the Joint Political Communiqué and the Afghanistan Partnership Framework, which were adopted at the Conference.

The EU’s development assistance is subject to adoption of the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework along the lines proposed by the European Commission on 2 June. This assistance will support implementation of the second Afghanistan National Peace and Development Framework covering the period of 2021-2025. The EU’s support will also help to address growing poverty levels in Afghanistan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alongside development support, the EU will also continue to provide impartial, life-saving humanitarian assistance, boosting the coronavirus response as well as assisting victims of conflict and forced displacement, including with emergency food provision, protection services to address gender-based violence, the education of children, as well as advocacy for respect of International

Humanitarian Law by all parties to the conflict. In 2016, the EU similarly pledged Afghanistan €1.2 billion euros over a four-year period. Actual payments in 2016–2020 exceeded €1.75 billion. In 2002–2020, the European Union has committed in total more than €5.1 billion to Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the largest beneficiary of EU development assistance in the world. EU support aims to preserve the political and development achievements of the last 19 years and is guided by strong democratic and human rights principles.

The EU has been among the most generous humanitarian donors to Afghanistan. Total EU humanitarian assistance in the country since 1994 amounts to almost €1 billion.

As a second wave of infection subsides, Britain and France have announced their intention to ease the coronavirus restrictions in the run-up to Christmas.

In a televised evening address, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that shops could reopen this Saturday and that nation-wide stay-at-home orders would be lifted from December 15.

“We will be able to travel without authorisation, including between regions, and spend Christmas with our families,” Macron said, while warning that some restrictions would stay in place to avoid a third wave.

A country-wide curfew from 9:00pm to 7:00am will start on December 15, while restaurants and bars will remain shut until January.

The British authorities also announced on Tuesday that restrictions on social mixing and travel would be eased across the UK over Christmas, with up to three families allowed to mix over the festive period.

“As 2020 draws to a close, we recognise it has been an incredibly difficult year for us all,” a joint statement form the governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said.

Germany’s 16 states have also agreed to slightly loosen limits on social contact over Christmas.

State leaders agreed to cap gatherings to 10 people over the December 23 to January 1 holiday – double the limit for the rest of December. These compromise measures reflected calls by some less-affected regions for lighter restrictions.

Care homes first in line

Hopes for an end to the pandemic also received a further boost on Tuesday when the Russian developers of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine said it had proved 95 percent effective in a second interim analysis of clinical trial data.

They said it can be stored at between two and eight degrees Celsius (between 35.6 and 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit), instead of the temperatures below freezing required for some other vaccines.

They did not specify the number of cases used to make the calculation, however.

Western experts have in the past expressed concern over Russia’s vaccine, fearing that its development could have been rushed.

There are now several possible vaccines internationally that have undergone or are undergoing clinical trials, some already seeking US and EU approval for emergency use — Candidates by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca/Oxford University are leading the pack.

Optimism sparked by the vaccines have given a boost to virus-weary citizens across the globe in recent days, as well as pushing up stock markets.

The Dow surged past 30,000 points for the first time ever Tuesday as receding US political uncertainty and hopes for virus vaccines offset worries over spiking Covid-19 cases.

Scramble for doses

In Brussels, the EU announced it was concluding a sixth contract to reserve doses – this time for up to 160 million from US giant Moderna.

“Every member state will receive it at the same time on a pro rata basis,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.

France’s Macron, in his address Tuesday, said he hoped that the first Covid vaccines would be available for use by the end of December or in early January.

Austria said it would acquire more than 16 million doses of the vaccine through the EU and could start a vaccination campaign in January.

The government in Spain, one of the worst-hit countries in Europe, also said vaccinations could start in January and care home residents would have priority, followed by medical workers.

Even once a vaccine becomes available, any return to normality for a global economy ravaged by the pandemic seems a long way off.

The boss of Australia’s Qantas airline, Alan Joyce, on Tuesday said proof of vaccination would likely become the only way people will be allowed to fly.

Aviation’s global industry body IATA said Tuesday it estimated that airline revenue this year would plunge 60 percent.

Easing rules for Christmas

Although governments in Europe and North America are keen to preserve end-of-year festive cheer, experts are worried about the contagion risk from the upcoming holidays.

The United States – by far the worst-hit nation – celebrates Thanksgiving on Thursday, and many Americans plan to spend the holiday with extended family despite official warnings.

Nearly 258,000 people have died nationwide and the caseload is edging towards 12.4 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Stopping short of issuing an outright ban, the US government’s health protection agency has for the first time called on Americans not to travel for the annual holiday, which sees families get together over turkey, yams and cranberry sauce.