“We are glad that the Azerbaijani president took into consideration the necessity of consideration of the Council of Europe’s recommendations on new law �On Municipalities’, submitted to Azerbaijani authorities late this September,” Mats Lindberg, the special representative of the CE Secretary General, told a working group on establishment of Association on Regional Self-government Bodies (ARSB).
“Unfortunately, the recommendations were not taken into consideration in the law adopted by the parliament in October due to untimely translation,” said Lindberg noting that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev returned the bill to the parliament for review. During the next consideration of the draft law recommendations by the European experts will be more probably taken into consideration, which will enable to design more progressive document.
In respect to boycott of parliamentary sitting by the opposition Lindberg said that it would be better to see in the parliament both the opposition and pro-governmental parties. It would enable to carry out more constructive dialogue.
He also touched upon the consideration of the mandate of the new parliament at the CE. The issue was considered at a meeting of the CE in Bucharest and it will be considered at the January session of the CE in Strasbourg.
In the end Lindberg touched upon an issue on the existence of the prisons of the Central Intelligence Department in the European countries and post-Soviet area. “The CE does not believe in the existence of such prison in Azerbaijan. A special group establishment for this respect will visit the countries to investigate the issue. But I think it does not concern Azerbaijan,” he underlined.