Fiji’s allocation for sugar reform accompanying measures for 2009 totaled 24 million euro, or $32.48 million.
The commission would have made this financing available to Fiji subject to a legitimate government being in place in accordance with the E.U. Council decision of Oct. 1, 2007.
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel said: “I encourage the government of Fiji to fulfill its commitments to the E.U. so that we are able to reinstate sugar reform payments in the future.”
The European Union has re-affirmed its opposition to the Fiji military’s refusal to allow the country to return to democracy for at least another five years.
European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Joe Borg has been meeting in Canberra with Australian ministers.
He said virtually all financial assistance to Fiji has been suspended.
Borg also said reports in the Fiji media quoting the E.U.’s Commissioner for Development Cooperation Louis Michel as saying that the E.U. wanted to assist Fiji were entirely false.
“Commissioner Michel was very clear in that he expressed his extreme disappointment with the recent developments that have taken place in Fiji and that these are completely unacceptable to the European Union,” Borg told Radio Australia.
