European Commission president: EU can't be accused of double standards

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 21 /Trend A. Badalova/

The EU cannot be accused of double standards, president of European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday at the joint press conference in Brussels, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, the EU official website reported.

"Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, it tries to be extremely objective dealing with such issues as human rights and rule of law. It rightly has that reputation," he said.

"There were concerns regarding the respect the rule of law in some of our member states, and in some cases of violations of the community laws, we went to the court of justice against the member states of European Union," Barroso said.

On the other hand, Barroso noted that he understands the perceptions that some people may have regarding the double standards in the media and in the public opinion.

"The reality is that there are prejudices all around the world, not just Europe. And we should avoid these kind of prejudices - that some societies are superior to others, that some countries are more important than others, and so on," he explained, adding that for him all the countries of the world are exactly the same.

Barroso went on to note that in the EU, there are high standards in terms of respect of fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.

"There are of course problems, here and there. Nobody is perfect, but we should be proud that in European Union there are functioning well-established democracies. So lets be fair, the members of EU have high level of respect to human rights and democracy," he said.

Barroso underscored that the persons are not there to serve the state, but the state is there to serve the persons.

"I am happy to see that in Azerbaijan there is committment to the human rights, the rule of law," he noted.