EU rejects claim trying to link aid to economic deals
Pacific members of a 74 member group of mainly former European colonies said Thursday they would call off neogtiations for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the EU if Brussels tried to link the deals with aid to the region.
Pacific trade ministers meeting in the Vanuatu capital Port Vila earlier expressed grave concern at what they saw as a suggestion by the EU that aid worth 95 million euros (130 million US dollars) over five years would be cut back if the EPAs were not completed by a year-end deadline.
But in a statement issued through the European Commission's regional office in Suva, the commission said this was a "serious misrepresentation" of the EU's position.
"The total amount of financial support notified will not be reduced in any way as a result of the outcome of the EPA process," the commission said.
"At no time has the European Union used development assistance as a bargaining chip in EPA negotiations."
Financial assistance targeted for projects relating to the implementation of EPAs would be reliant on a successful outcome in the negotiations, it said, but if no Pacific-EU EPA was agreed, the aid would be spent elsewhere within the Pacific aid programme.
The incident appears likely to leave bad feeling between the two sides.
Samoan Trade Minister Misa Telefoni said Friday there had been no misunderstanding on the part of the Pacific ministers about the original suggestion in an email from the EU that aid would be linked to the trade deals.
"I don't believe anybody who reads the plain English used in that email will be in any doubt," Telefoni told reporters.
Head of the European Commission delegation to the Pacific, Roberto Ridolfi, said he was extremely disappointed that individual words had been taken out of context "to score Pacific EPA negotiating points.
"You will therefore understand that we regard this as a particularly unnecessary and unfortunate incident which could jeopardise a process we would rather see as an opportunity to expand and deepen a longstanding EU-Pacific relationship," he said in a letter Friday to the Pacific Islands Forum.
The commission said it still did not think it was likely the EPA negotiations would fail.
Earlier this week, the deputy secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum Peter Forau said it was unlikely the full EPAs with Pacific countries would be completed by the year-end deadline.
The EPAs are reciprocal deals allowing the free flow of goods and services between Europe and countries in the African, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Many Pacific island countries fear the opening of their markets could cripple their fragile economies.