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Anar Ibrahimov: â€œVenice Commissionâ€™s opinion on the Constitutionâ€™s 146th article has no relation to municipal electionsâ€

14 September 2009 11:03 (UTC +04:00)

-Acting president of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional authorities Jan Micallef said that Venice Commission would be asked to express opinion about the Azerbaijan Constitutionâ€™s 146th article on municipalities. Is there any address?

-President Ilham Aliyev issued decree after the last amendments to the Azerbaijan Constitution came into force. The decree recommends receiving of expert opinion from the Venice Commission during the adoption of legislative acts related to some articles, including 146th one, of the Constitution. The 146th article is about the municipal authorities and administrative control over them. The legislative and normative-legal acts related to this article will receive Venice Commissionâ€™s expert opinion. The commission will be addressed after the preparation of those acts.

-Will it be asked until the municipal elections?

- This process has no relation to the elections. For example letâ€™s see the report of municipalities. Its normative-legal act will be implemented considering the Venice Commissionâ€™s opinion. Micallef welcomed this decree. We informed CLRA about the decree earlier on, but it wasnâ€™t accepted univocally.

- What issues were discussed between Micallef and the delegation?

- We talked about the relations between CLRA and Azerbaijan and activity of our delegation. Micallef took interest in some issues, including referendum. I think Micallef was satisfied with Azerbaijan. Earlier he had some controversial position because he had no enough information. He changed his position when met with the authorities and election officials. He understood that changes in Azerbaijan were directed toward the development of local self-administrative bodies.

The second issue Micallef mentioned at the press conference was an establishment of Mayorâ€™s institution in Baku. Micallef was advising to accelerate this process, but he saw that Baku has perfect administrative mechanism and appropriate municipalities, Baku municipalities have opportunity for effective activity within their present status. Micallef was satisfied with uniting of less effective and less populated municipalities.

Micallef followed one more goal during his visit to Azerbaijan. He put forward an initiative to hold meeting on contribution of European local and regional authorities to solution of global climate changes in Copenhagen. Micallef was satisfied with support of Azerbaijan for his initiative.