Foreign

Home page

Foreign

EU Ambassador: "Often the European Parliament is even giving opinions and criticizing other EU institutions and EU countries, which shows their real independenceâ€

13 May 2011 11:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementieva â€“ APA. â€œThe European Parliament is an important and genuinely independent institution. It looks at the political situation of countries from a political angle. It is not targeted any country, in particular, all countries receive their share of attention, and at times criticism. Often the European Parliament is even giving opinions and criticizing other EU institutions and EU countries, which shows their real independenceâ€, said Ambassador Roland Kobia, Head of EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, commenting on the European Parliament Resolution adopted yesterday, APA reports. â€œThis is their role to recall the principles, to suggest improvements through political declarations and legislation. We have to respect an institution which is directly elected and represents over 500 million citizens. Resolutions of the European parliament are often valuable to raise awareness and make things change. Some months ago, the European parliament had adopted a more positive report on Azerbaijan, now the tone is more demanding and expresses concern, there must be reasons for that. The President of the European Parliament, Mr Buzek, will visit Azerbaijan next week, and this will be a golden opportunity to discuss these issues with Azerbaijan. I am convinced things can improve through a permanent dialogue and continued engagement, and if there is political willâ€.

â€œWe want to use our good and wide-ranging cooperation with Azerbaijan to convince that gradually opening up to a better implementation of the Constitution of Azerbaijan, which protects freedoms, and work on the path of democratization is in the interest of the country itself. It is not something that is being done to please others. The anti-corruption campaign is an example of good initiatives taken by the Government of Azerbaijan and that need to be continued and increased. We are looking forward to developing our cooperation with Azerbaijan in these and other matters â€, Ambassador added.

On May 12, the European Parliament, in plenary session, issued a Resolution on the situation of democracy and human rights in Sri Lanka, Belarus and Azerbaijan. At the end of discussions the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Azerbaijan.