Azerbaijan resumes relations with EP
By Amina Nazarli
The Azerbaijani parliament has decided to resume its once-broken relations with the European parliament over the biased resolution adopted by the EP a year ago.
The repeated appeals and personal visits by the EP could 'remedy' the situation as Baku decoded top consider rebuilding its ties with Euronest Parliament Assembly.
The Azerbaijani parliament adopted a resolution in the first meeting of its autumn session on September 30 to resume relations with the EP.
The document that the EP adopted on September 2015 inflicted a serious blow to the development of its relations with Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijani Parliament, for its part, took appropriate decision and discontinued its activity in the Euronest.
The EP sent the Euronest PA delegation to Azerbaijan in April 2016 for the resumption of dialogue between the two sides.
Later, in an effort to continue the negotiations, the EP's 15-member delegation visited Azerbaijan on September 19-21 to discuss the issue of restoration of relations.
Earlier in June, President Ilham Aliyev received Vice-Chair of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe at the European Parliament, Eastern Partnership rapporteur for Azerbaijan Norica Nicolai and member of the European Parliament Iveta Grigule.
Then, the head of state noted that unjust anti-Azerbaijani position of some senior officials of the European Parliament contradicted the position of the European Commission.
Nicolai, in turn, said the situation relating to Azerbaijan was changing, adding that she wanted the relations between the country and the European Parliament to normalize.
During the September visit, the European delegation was received by President Aliyev, who expressed his hope that the visit of the delegation will be a good opportunity for them to get detailed information about Azerbaijan, the country’s realities and plans.
President Aliyev criticized the resolution adopted by the EP, stressing that this caused a serious regression in relations and it will be difficult to move forward and plan future activities without clarifying this matter.
The head of state said, “I believe that this text does not reflect the true nature of our cooperation. Our cooperation with the European Union is based on mutual interests and mutual respect. In fact, in general, we have very good relations with the European Union.”
As part of the visit, the 13th meeting of the European Union (EU)-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Committee (PCC) was held in the capital city. Speaking at the meeting, Head of the EP delegation Sajjad Karim highlighted that the EU considered its relationship with Azerbaijan as a very important and mutually beneficial one.
In the statement adopted following the visit, the European delegation expressed regret in the absence of more than a year of dialogue between the two parliaments, and noted that the necessary measures will be taken to prevent the situation in the future, which can lead to rupture of the relationship.
Given this decision, the Azerbaijani Parliament adopted a decision on cancellation of articles 10 and 11 adopted in September 2015 for the restoration of relations with the EP.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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