The 9^th session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly that began on 19 April will last for two days. The first day saw the online meetings of two permanent committees of the Assembly. The members of the Milli Majlis delegation to the Euronest PA discoursed on the agenda items of the committees from the point of view of the national interests of Azerbaijan.

The presentations given at the online meeting of the permanent Committee on Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy covered the following subjects: the role of political parties, civic society, a fair election environment as well as free and pluralistic mass media in the strengthening of democratic processes, the Eastern Partnership regional co-operation and the supremacy of law and judiciary reforms as a basis for democracy and economic growth. The presentations were followed by debates.

The leader of the Milli Majlis delegation to Euronest Azer Karimli and the delegation members Javanshir Feyziyev and Tural Ganjaliyev who were actively involved in the debates voiced their views and suggestions regarding the issues of regional conflicts and the topics of the FSU countries.

Azer Karimli spoke of the role that Russia had lately been playing in the South Caucasus, adding that the trilateral declaration that Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia inked on 10 November last year ended the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that had lasted for thirty years. That declaration contains the dramatic provisions not only concerning cessation of hostilities but also ensuring the complete de-occupation of the Azerbaijani territories. The official Moscow made a contribution of its own to creating a new reality not merely for the two countries but also for the region as a whole.

The Azerbaijani MP remarked that Russia had helped the two countries settle the conflict in keeping with the international legal standards and principles whereas the European institutions in general and the OSCE in particular had failed to help achieve a peaceful settlement. Moreover, they had oft demonstrated a biased and one-sided attitude to the problem.

Mr Karimli also mentioned the visit of the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivo Klaar to Armenia on 14 April, during which Mr Klaar elected to have a meeting with David Babayan posing as ‘a minister of foreign affairs’ of the ‘NKR’. Such a course of action is inadmissible: the EU Special Representative had failed to take stock of the post-resolution realia in the region and taken the steps that threatened the fragile peace, gave the opposing party unfounded hopes and defied both common sense and the international laws, emphasised the leader of the Azerbaijani delegation.

Continuing, Mr Karimli mentioned the serious problems Azerbaijan was experiencing with the demining of the liberated territories and that only Turkey and Russia have so far been helping Azerbaijan address this issue.

During the discussions, the Azerbaijani MPs also let the members of the Euronest PA know that Azerbaijan had subscribed to serious advances in all the public life aspects and that the Doing Business 2019 by the World Bank had put Azerbaijan amongst the most active reform-implementing countries.

The decree of the President of Azerbaijan ‘On Deepening the Reforms in the Judicial and Legal System’ dated 3 April 2019 accelerated the formation of a fair justice system adequate to the demands of the time and increased its transparency, quality and effectiveness.

Appropriate decisions about the agenda items were made at the meeting of the Committee on Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy.

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The Committee on Economic Integration, Legal Approximation and Convergence with EU Policies held an online meeting of its own on the same day; the members of the Milli Majlis Vugar Bayramov and Nurlan Hasanov took part in it.

The adoption of the agenda of the meeting was followed by the affirmation of the minutes of the committee meeting held in Tbilisi on 8 December 2019.

Then came presentation of the report on the educational and economic interlinks between the European Union and Eastern Partnership states. There was an exchange of views on the socio-economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and on how the European Union could possibly help the Eastern Partnership states recover after the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, the meeting participants approved the Committee’s action plan for the years 2021 and 2022.

With that, the committee meeting was over.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis