Proposal for a Council Decision amending Council Decision 2007/641/EC concerning the Republic of Fiji Islands and extending the period of application thereof

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 decided on appropriate measures for Fiji to establish a degree of parallelism between Fiji’s respect for the agreed commitments and development cooperation.

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. In doing so, 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 to be illegal. Fiji was also placed under a state of emergency and freedom of expression substantially curtailed.

Following these negative developments, the Council decided on 24 September 2009 to extend until 31 March 2010 the validity of the appropriate measures laid down in Decision 2007/641/EC, which was due to expire on 1 October 2009. Due to further delays in implementing the commitments agreed with the EU the Council decided on 29 March 2010 to extend until 1 October 2010 the validity of the appropriate measures for Fiji established in Decision 2007/641/EC, and then again on 27 September 2010 until 31 March 2011, on 31 March 2011 until 30 September 2011, and on 26 September 2011 until 30 September 2012.

Fiji is embarking on a historical process of new democratisation. The forthcoming steps should lead to a transparent, credible and participatory electoral process and to democratic elections. The milestones towards achieving this have been shifting, which is why the Commission proposes to the Council to extend the current policy and appropriate measures by 18 months with a possibility at any stage to review the appropriate measures by way of a new Council decision.

With a view to encouraging Fiji to continue on its path towards the restoration of democracy, rule of law and full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and with the final aim of normalising the situation with Fiji, the EU should step up political engagement with Fiji, and resume political dialogue with the aim to revise and update the commitments agreed with the Republic of Fiji in 2007 in order to delete obsolete items and ensure commitment requirements are in line with the new Constitution. An important part of this dialogue would be conducted during the crucial period in Fiji's democratisation process as the country moves towards the elections to be held at the latest in September 2014.

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.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)599: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:599:FIN

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