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President of Congress of Local and Regional Authorities: â€œWe will prepare detailed report on local authorities in Azerbaijanâ€ â€“ INTERVIEW

President of Congress of Local and Regional Authorities: â€œWe will prepare detailed report on local authorities in Azerbaijanâ€ â€“ <font color=red>INTERVIEW </font>

28 March 2011 09:48 (UTC +04:00)

Strasbourg. Fouad Gulubeyli â€“ APA. Keith Whitmore, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, gives interview to APA

- How do you evaluate the cooperation between the Congress and Azerbaijan?

- I hold regular meetings with the permanent representative of Azerbaijan at the Council of Europe and I can say that we have very positive and fruitful relations with Azerbaijan. I participated in two meetings of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and I would like to underline the special attention attached by the Azerbaijani ambassador to the Congress. I am also planning to organize other joint meetings with the permanent representatives of the Council of Europe member countries. I will have separate meetings with the Azerbaijani ambassador to discuss some issues. Of course, Azerbaijani delegation attends the meetings of our Congress. Azerbaijani delegation can play much role in the Congressâ€™ work, but unfortunately, it doesnâ€™t work intensively with the Congress. I think, lack of activity of the Azerbaijani delegation could be related to some difficulties in the country. We observed the municipal elections in March, 2010 in Azerbaijan and released our report on it. It was a positive report which described the elections as well-organized and calm. There were positive ideas in the report assessed the elections as technically well-organized, but it also pointed out some problems related to the elections. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities concerns about one issue. This is non-election of the Baku Mayor. It is important for us because if the capital cityâ€™s mayor is elected, he or she has more political support and authorities. We support the idea of election of Baku Mayor. The local authorities are like a family. We see that many politicians elected in local levels have more willingness to play active role in the political processes. It can be easy if there are national associations in the field of local authorities. For example, we, the United Kingdom, had more active role in creation of national associations of the local authorities in Georgia. The national associations made the local authorities in this country more mandatory and respectable in the democratic processes. Our duty is not to rebuke, but to assist the countries in the field of local authorities. An annual week of local democracy in Europe in October contributes to the development and work of local authorities and education of the citizens in the field of local democracy. Of course, Azerbaijan would also get more benefits if it played active role in this event.

- A question arises taking into account the decision passed at the recent session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to start fundamental reforms to increase its influence. Will there be any changes in the Congressâ€™ activity with regard to the member states?

- Participation in the local elections is very important for us and is of fundamental character. Frankly speaking the situation in Azerbaijan in this field is much better than the country I live (UK). We are glad if the level of participation in the local elections is 30 percent. Even the countries having old democratic traditions face difficulties in this field. It mainly concerns the youth. They have little interest in the local elections. The European Local Democracy Week covers this field. Our main goal is to discuss awareness of the youth in the local democracy and their involvement in this field. This is not only the problem of Azerbaijan. As regards the reforms in the Congress, of course our activity will be based on the issues of democracy and human rights and we will pay more attention to the monitoring of the local elections. As you know, we observed municipal elections in Azerbaijan last year. We will prepare a detailed report on Azerbaijan next year. Azerbaijan is among the countries that will be visited, a report will be prepared. As regards the local authorities, increase of interest in local elections, recognition and adoption of our recommendations is very important while we arrange election observation mission. When I was chairman of the institutional committee, I established a monitoring mechanism called procedure of conformity. After giving a number of recommendations to a country, we again visit this country and demand a report from the government concerning the fulfillment of our recommendations. We want the government to make a report on the state of the recommendations, improvement of the election process, funding of heads of municipalities. These procedural rules will facilitate the Council of Europeâ€™s activity concerning the member statesâ€™ respect to democracy.

- Previously, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities said the thesis connected with municipalities after the referendum on Azerbaijani Constitution did not correspond to the principles of the Charter of Local Democracy. What is the situation in this issue?

- Actually, that time, this issue was assessed at the level of the other body of the CoE â€“ Venice Commission, which investigates the Constitutional Law. Venice Commission expressed criticism on it. That time, this process moved, but we saw that a good time to solve this issue had not come yet. Now, there is some progress in these issues. We will discuss this issue again during our next visit to Azerbaijan next year. I must also note that our activity is to help the countries. Each time when we criticize, when we tell the existence of some difficulties to face, we say it for ways of joint solution of the problems. The main philosophy of our Congress is to help the countries.