Ago group head: Council of Europe proposed assistance in Azerbaijan in presidential elections

The head of the group Permanent Swedish representative to the Council of Europe Per Sj?gren said Ago monitoring group was established in 2001 to monitor the implementation of commitments and obligations undertaken by Azerbaijan and Armenia vis-?-vis the Council of Europe.

“We are focusing on three directions. These are judicial reforms, improvement of election practice and situation on freedom of expression. We discussed these issues at the meetings in Baku,” he said.

Stating that they concluded the meetings in Foreign Ministry again Per Sj?gren said that it was decided to have a meeting with the representatives of the Venice Commission in autumn in order to expand the cooperation with the Council of Europe.

“The Council of Europe offered assistance in election campaign for the presidential elections in Azerbaijan next year. We hope Azerbaijan will take into consideration the recommendations to the electoral code proposed by the Venice commission. Moreover, we also stressed the necessity of reforms in judicial system. The Azerbaijani government to allocate extra funds from the budget to increase the number of judges and lawyers and provide training for them.600 prosecutors will have trainings in 18 months,” he said.

Touching on the situation of media in the country the monitoring group head said the Council of Europe will support to improve the quality of education in journalism faculty of Baku State University.

Refusing to comment on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict the Swedish diplomat said it is not in the group’s mandate, “The Ago group does not deal with conflicts. However, I can say we support peaceful solution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.”

/APA/