Strasbourg. Fuad Gulubeyli – APA. “Azerbaijan has no long history in local democracy and it is still a young country in this sphere. Elections to local authorities in this country have been held since 1999 and this is not such a long history,” said Jakob Wienen, Mayor of Katwijk and co-rapporteur of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe on Azerbaijan, in his interview with APA.
Wienen said that Azerbaijan has three main problems in local democracy: “The first problem is that the municipalities have almost no duties and powers in the legislation on local government bodies. Second, sufficient funds and human resources have not been allocated for this sphere. The third issue is that the local authorities almost depend on the executive authorities. We have given necessary recommendations for improvement of the state of local democracy.”
Jakob Wienen said there is almost no tradition of independent local authorities in Azerbaijan and all authorities belong to the executive bodies.
“A year ago we held a meeting with the Azerbaijani government so that the recommendations of the Congress are taken into consideration, we discussed these issues. Not all necessary steps have been taken. After the meeting we believe that Azerbaijan will solve all the issues in the short run. We believe that they will take serious our recommendations and fulfill them. We meet, hold discussions and try to explain that the most important issue is the allocation of more funds and human resources for municipalities,” he said.
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