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Elkhan Suleymanov: The next session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly will be held in Azerbaijan â€“ INTERVIEW

Elkhan Suleymanov: The next session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly will be held in Azerbaijan â€“ <font color=red>INTERVIEW </font>

15 September 2011 10:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov â€“ APA. The first session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly started in Strasbourg yesterday. The meetings of the Euronest PA Bureau and committees were held on the first day of the session. Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to Euronest PA Elkhan Suleymanov answers our questions about the issues discussed and decisions passed at the meetings.

- We would like you to give information about the issues discussed at the meeting of the Bureau?

- As we said in advance, Azerbaijanâ€™s proposal to hold Euronest PA session in the Eastern Partnership countries in May, 2012 is on the agenda of the Bureauâ€™s meeting. In accordance with article 7 of the Procedural Rule, the Azerbaijani side offered to hold the next session of the Euronest PA in Baku. At the meeting of the Bureau on June 21, 2011 during the voting on the proposal to hold the next plenary meeting of the Euronest PA in Baku in May, 2012, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia and Co-President of the Euronest PA Kristian Vigenin supported the proposal, Armenia, Polish parliamentarian Jacek Saryusz-Wolski and Romanian parliamentarian Traian Ungureanu voted against it, Moldova abstained. So, 2/3 votes were not won. It was decided to review the issue at the meeting of the Bureau during the September session. Euronest PA member from the EU, Polish parliamentarian Jacek Saryusz-Wolski offered not to hold Euronest PA sessions in the Eastern Partnership countries within the next two years. I immediately expressed my opinion about Saryusz-Wolskiâ€™s proposal and said the proposal gives grounds for discrimination and double standards with respect to the Eastern Partnership countries at the beginning of the cooperation based on open reliability, mutual confidence principles, makes this organization insignificant. Eastern Partnership countries, especially Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova supported me. Mr. Saryusz-Wolski asked whether any Eastern Partnership country besides Azerbaijan applied to host the session. I said the Armenian side applied to hold the September session in Yerevan on the days of the state independence anniversary, but did not apply to host the 2012 session. After long discussions decision was passed to hold the second session of the Euronest PA in Baku in May, 2012. I think this decision is the political success of the Azerbaijani delegation. It was also decided to discuss in the Bureau where the meetings of the committees will be held. The Bureau also passed a decision to hold the meeting of the social committee in Armenia in February, 2012. The themes of new reports, action plan were also discussed in the Bureau.

- What about the Committee meetings?

- On the first day of the session, Euronest PA committees for energy security, economic policy and social affairs held their meetings and adopted documents prepared by them.

- You have not mentioned the meeting of the Committee for Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracyâ€¦.

- The Committee for Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy held its meeting on September 14 and heard the report â€œRecommendations for 2011 Eastern Partnership Summit: high expectations for purposeful activityâ€. Delegations of the Eastern Partnership and EU member countries proposed some amendments to the report. Armenia made proposals that can seriously blow on the position of Azerbaijan. Armenia proposed to avoid the resolutions and decisions by the UN Security Council, PACE, European Parliament on the settlement of the conflicts in the territory of Eastern Partnership member countries, to involve Armenia in energy policy, regional economic integration processes and regional transnational projects, as well as to remove borders between the Eastern Partnership countries and etc.

Azerbaijani delegation insistently said that these proposals are unacceptable and informed the Committee members about the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, non-constructive position of Armenia and its destructive policy in the region. It was decided to take the international resolutions and decisions into consideration and to add the articles about the EUâ€™s active involvement in the settlement of the conflicts in the territory of Eastern Partnership countries, respect to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders of the Eastern Partnership countries. Armeniaâ€™s proposal â€œto condemn policy of isolation of any Eastern Partnership member country, not depending on that whether it is origin or transit country, from the regional cooperation on energy securityâ€ was removed from the report. On behalf of the Azerbaijani delegation, I addressed the Committee and said that I couldnâ€™t approve this document because it didnâ€™t reflect the realities in the South Caucasus and it didnâ€™t respect the international resolutions on the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict and encouragement for the fulfillment of these resolutions. Therefore it is difficult for Euronest PA to reach any progress in this field. It was decided to coordinate the issues protested by Azerbaijan during the plenary meeting on September 15. I believe that Azerbaijani delegation will defend the interests of Azerbaijan during the plenary meeting till the end and will not allow the adoption of decisions, which donâ€™t meet its interests.

- How do you assess the activity of Azerbaijani delegation in the context of adopted decisions?

- Azerbaijani delegation has been working intensively in the past four months and achieved political success to hold Euronest PAâ€™s next session in Baku, as well as adoption of decisions, which meet the interests of Azerbaijan and prevented the amendments made by Armenia, which aimed to weaken the positions of our country. I highly appreciate the activity of Azerbaijani delegation.