Elkhan Suleymanov: The next session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly will be held in Azerbaijan
15 September 2011 [15:38] - TODAY.AZ
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, Azerbaijan’s proposal to hold Euronest PA
session in the Eastern Partnership countries in May, 2012 is on the
agenda of the Bureau’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-Wolski’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 Democracy….
The Committee for Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy held
its meeting on September 14 and heard the report “Recommendations for
2011 Eastern Partnership Summit: high expectations for purposeful
activity”. 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 EU’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.
Armenia’s proposal “to 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 security”
was removed from the report. On behalf of the Azerbaijani delegation, I
addressed the Committee and said that I couldn’t approve this document
because it didn’t reflect the realities in the South Caucasus and it
didn’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 don’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 PA’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.
/APA/
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