EC concluding consultations with Fiji Islands under Article 96 of the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement and Article 37 of the Development Cooperation Instrument - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2010)454 - Amendment of and extending the period of application of Decision 2007/641/EC concluding consultations with Fiji Islands ...
source	COM(2010)454
date	01-09-2010

1. The military take-over in December 2006 led to consultations under Article 96 of the revised Cotonou Agreement. These resulted in April 2007 in agreed commitments concerning human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law. On 1 October 2007 the Council, in its Decision 2007/641/EC decided on appropriate measures for Fiji to establish a degree of parallelism between Fiji’s respect for the agreed commitments and development cooperation.

2. On 10 April 2009, Fiji’s President abrogated the Constitution, removed all judges and declared that elections would take place at the latest in September 2014. Hereby, Fiji unilaterally broke key commitments it had given to the EU in April 2007. This happened the day after the Appeals Court had ruled the appointment of the military-led government following the coup in 2006 illegal. Fiji is also under a state of emergency and freedom of expression has been substantially curtailed.

3. Following these negative developments, the Council decided, on 24 September 2009, in its Decision 2009/735/EC, to extend until 31 March 2010, the validity of the appropriate measures for Fiji established in Decision 2007/641/EC, which was due to expire on 1 October 2009.

4. Due to further delays in implementing the commitments agreed with the EU the Council decided, on 29 March 2010 in its Decision 2010/208/EU, to extend until 1 October 2010, the validity of the appropriate measures for Fiji established in Decision 2007/641/EC.

5. No further positive development as regards the fulfilment of agreed commitments can be noted.

6. While the 2010 sugar allocation, conditional to progress in the continuation of the democratic process, was cancelled in May 2010, part of the allocation was set aside to provide direct assistance through the Delegation in Suva to the population directly dependent on sugar production in order to mitigate the adverse social consequences. The provision of any such support will have to be confirmed by the EU's legislative and budgetary authorities.

7. Taking into account the above considerations, the Commission can only, at this stage, propose an extension of the current policy and appropriate measures.

8. Therefore, the Commission is proposing to the Council to extend the current Decision for a further 6 months ending on 31 March 2011.

9. However the Decision should continue to be reviewed in a way that allows the EU to keep a regular dialogue and permanent political engagement with Fiji, and therefore the Decision should be kept under constant review.

10. It is proposed to notify this Decision to the interim Government of Fiji, on the basis of the annexed draft letter to President Nailatikau, and to inform him (a) that the EU remains committed to pursuing the enhanced political dialogue under Article 8 of the Cotonou Agreement, (b) that the assessment of progress made towards return to constitutional rule will guide the EU following the upcoming decisions on Accompanying Measures for Sugar Protocol Countries and 10th EDF National Indicative Programme with respect to Fiji and finally, (c) that new consultations under Article 96 of the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement and Article 37 of the Development Cooperation Instrument are a distinct possibility at the disposal of Fiji.

Conclusion

11. In the light of the foregoing, the Council is requested to adopt the attached draft proposal for a Council Decision amending and extending the period of application of the appropriate measures for the Republic of Fiji Islands.