COUNCIL DECISION
of 26 September 2011
amending and extending the period of application of Decision 2007/641/EC on the conclusion of consultations with the Republic of the Fiji Islands under Article 96 of the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement and Article 37 of the Development Cooperation Instrument
(2011/637/EU)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 217 thereof,
Having regard to the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000 (1), as last amended in Ouagadougou on 22 June 2010 (2) (‘the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement’), and in particular Article 96 thereof,
Having regard to the Internal Agreement between the representatives of the governments of the Member States, meeting within the Council, on measures to be taken and procedures to be followed for the implementation of the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement (3), and in particular Article 3 thereof,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1905/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation (‘the Development Cooperation Instrument’) (4), and in particular Article 37 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
Whereas:
(1)
Council Decision 2007/641/EC (5) was adopted to take appropriate measures following the violation of the essential elements referred to in Article 9 of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement and of the values referred to in Article 3 of the Development Cooperation Instrument.
(2)
Those measures have been extended by Council Decision 2009/735/EC (6), and subsequently by Council Decisions 2010/208/EU (7), 2010/589/EU (8) and 2011/219/EU (9), since not only has the Republic of Fiji yet to implement important commitments it made in consultations held in April 2007 concerning essential elements of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement and the Development Cooperation Instrument, but there have also been important regressive developments concerning a number of these commitments.
(3)
Decision 2007/641/EC expires on 30 September 2011. It is appropriate to extend its validity, and to update the content of the appropriate measures accordingly,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
Decision 2007/641/EC is hereby amended as follows:
(1)
in Article 3, the second paragraph is replaced by the following:
‘It shall expire on 30 September 2012. It shall be reviewed regularly at least once every 6 months.’;
(2)
the Annex is replaced by the Annex to this Decision.
Article 2
The letter in the Annex to this Decision shall be addressed to the Republic of Fiji.
Article 3
This Decision shall enter into force on the day of its adoption.
Done at Brussels, 26 September 2011.