Doubts over EU’s new Afghan envoy
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The appointment of a former Lithuanian foreign minister as the EU’s special envoy in Afghanistan has raised eyebrows in Brussels. The announcement comes only months after he was forced to resign from his previous post after allegedly covering up a secret CIA interrogation centre.
Vygaudas Usackas said yesterday that his high-profile appointment was important not just for Lithuania, but also for the union’s new central and eastern European members as a whole.
He told Euobserver.com: “I feel an additional responsibility to prove to some hesitant colleagues in the EU community that the new member states can carry a heavy weight.”
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton described the Lithuanian as an “excellent choice for the job.”
"I am 100 percent satisfied with this appointment [...] and there is nothing I need to be in any way worried about," she said at a news briefing following the appointment.
But not everyone is as enthusiastic as Baroness Ashton.
"I am not convinced that Mr Usackas possesses the requisite knowledge or profile to take on this task," European Parliament's rapporteur for Afghanistan Pino Arlacchi said last week. “His reputation and independence could be compromised by media reports that he has been complicit in withholding the truth about CIA rendition activities in Lithuania," he added.
Mr Usackas was forced to resign following a running argument with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite over allegedly covering up a Lithuanian based CIA interrogation centre three months ago.
As EU Special Representative to Afghanistan, Usackas’ duties will include advising Afghan President Hamid Karzai on this year’s parliamentary elections, a pressing issue in light of earlier presidential elections mired by accusations of vote rigging.
The diplomat’s remit also covers coordinating the millions of euros the EU gives annually to the government in Kabul, as well as liasing with NATO and the UN.
