The European Commission has distanced itself from a claim by Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel that €18 million in EU budget support to Sierra Leone was halted because of the country’s refusal to extradite fugitive Dutch drug trafficker Jos “Bolle Jos” Leijdekkers.
The dispute has created an unusual public disagreement between the European Commission and a senior minister of one of its member states over the reason for the suspension.
Van Weel said the Commission had stopped the payment to put pressure on Sierra Leone to cooperate in efforts to arrest and extradite Leijdekkers, who is wanted in the Netherlands over serious drug-trafficking offences. He welcomed the decision and said the measure sent a clear signal to Sierra Leone.
But European Commissioner Magnus Brunner said the suspension of budget support was for “technical reasons” and did not establish a direct link between the €18 million payment and Sierra Leone’s refusal to extradite Leijdekkers.
Brunner nevertheless said the EU was concerned about drug trafficking, organised crime and countries outside the EU that provide shelter to major drug traffickers.
The European Commission has acknowledged the wider issue of criminal networks and international cooperation while maintaining a distinction between that concern and the specific reason for the budget-support decision.
The Sierra Leone government has also rejected the suggestion that the €18 million postponement was triggered by the Leijdekkers case.
In a statement issued on 1 October, the government said the European Commission had formally communicated its decision in July, citing the timing of Sierra Leone’s request to amend the Financing Agreement and the resulting difficulty of completing the necessary procedures within the 2026 reporting cycle.
The government said the Commission had proposed rescheduling the 2026 and 2027 disbursements to 2027 and 2028 respectively, with targets for the 2027 disbursement already agreed.
It said EU representatives had subsequently made clear that the July decision was not taken as a consequence of discussions concerning any particular individual.
Sierra Leone acknowledged that the postponement was a setback but said it did not amount to a suspension of the broader partnership with the European Union.
The disagreement comes amid sustained Dutch pressure on Sierra Leone over Leijdekkers.
Van Weel has been publicly calling for tougher measures against countries that shelter convicted drug traffickers and has advocated cutting development assistance to countries that fail to cooperate with extradition efforts.
He has maintained that Sierra Leone could resolve the dispute by handing Leijdekkers over to the Netherlands and said the Netherlands would continue to increase pressure if there was no cooperation.
Dutch authorities say Leijdekkers was sentenced in the Netherlands to 24 years in prison for cocaine trafficking and an attempted murder. He has also received lengthy sentences in Belgium in separate cases.
Sierra Leone has maintained that judicial cooperation must be handled according to its laws and established legal procedures.
The €18 million at the centre of the dispute is 2026 EU budget support, rather than a suspension of all European development assistance to Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone’s government says the postponed payment forms part of an ongoing financing programme and that the wider EU partnership remains intact.
The emerging picture is therefore more complicated than the initial reports that the EU had “cut aid” to Sierra Leone over Leijdekkers.
There is broad agreement that the €18 million 2026 budget-support disbursement has been postponed.
But the parties disagree over why.
Van Weel links the move directly to Sierra Leone’s handling of the Leijdekkers extradition issue. The European Commission publicly describes the suspension as technical, while acknowledging wider concerns about drug trafficking and organised crime. Sierra Leone says the decision was communicated in July and was based on financing and administrative procedures rather than an individual judicial case.
The disagreement leaves an unresolved question over whether the €18 million decision should be understood primarily as an administrative postponement, as the Commission and Sierra Leone say, or as part of broader pressure over the Leijdekkers case, as the Dutch justice minister maintains.
