28 June 2010 04:07 pm
The decisions taken on Sri Lanka by the European Union (EU) are not influenced by anyone nor is the 27 member block influencing any party in the country, the European Commission head of delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Ambassador Bernard Savage told Daily Mirror online.
Ambassador Savage said this in response to a question posed by Daily Mirror online regarding comments made by the government, that the conditions put forward by the EU last week in order for Sri Lanka to obtain the GSP plus trade concessions are similar to conditions raised by the opposition to the government.
Meanwhile an EU spokesman in Brussels told Daily Mirror online it was wrong for the government to claim that the EU is politically motivated. President Mahinda Rajapakse had told the Times of India that the withdrawal of the GSP was politically motivated.
"To be very clear, to suggest that any decision by the EU is politically motivated and to link it to the elections of this year is entirely false. The government of Sri Lanka is very well aware that this is a legal process that began several years ago and to suggest otherwise is simply misleading." John Clancy, EU Trade Spokesman told Daily Mirror online.
Sri Lanka stands to lose the GSP plus facility in August unless it gives a written commitment to the EU by this Thursday to meet the conditions put forward by the EU in a letter to the government last week. The government has so far rejected the conditions and said it will also not formally respond to the EU letter. (Daily Mirror online)