BETA


2021/2231(INI) EU-Azerbaijan relations
Next event: Vote in plenary scheduled 2023/03/15 more...

Progress: Awaiting Parliament's vote

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead AFET ZOVKO Željana (icon: EPP EPP) SANTOS Isabel (icon: S&D S&D), KYUCHYUK Ilhan (icon: Renew Renew), GREGOROVÁ Markéta (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE), MARIANI Thierry (icon: ID ID), FOTYGA Anna (icon: ECR ECR), VILLANUEVA RUIZ Idoia (icon: GUE/NGL GUE/NGL)
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 54

Events

2023/03/15
   Vote in plenary scheduled
2023/03/14
   Debate in plenary scheduled
2023/02/20
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
Documents
2023/02/20
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary
Documents
2023/02/09
   EP - Vote in committee
2022/11/21
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2022/10/25
   EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2021/12/16
   EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament
2021/07/14
   EP - ZOVKO Željana (EPP) appointed as rapporteur in AFET

Documents

Activities

AmendmentsDossier
354 2021/2231(INI)
2022/11/17 AFET 354 amendments...
source: 736.481

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)

docs/2
date
2023-02-20T00:00:00
docs
url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2023-0037_EN.html title: A9-0037/2023
type
Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
body
EP
events/2/summary
  • The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the own-initiative report by Željana ZOVKO (EPP, CZ) on EU-Azerbaijan relations.
  • The report noted that for more than three decades and still ongoing, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan have resulted in the occupation of territories internationally recognised as belonging to the sovereign territory of
  • Azerbaijan, tens of thousands of casualties, immense destruction, including of cultural and religious sites, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
  • Deadly military confrontations between Azerbaijan and Armenia continue to erupt periodically. The ceasefire statement of 9 November 2020, introduced following the 44-day war waged by Azerbaijan in 2020, has not been fully implemented.
  • Conflict resolution and normalisation of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations
  • Members are convinced that sustainable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot be achieved through military means and the threat of use of force but requires a comprehensive political settlement in accordance with international law. They reaffirmed that, to be effective, a comprehensive peace treaty must include provisions that guarantee the integrity of Armenian sovereign territory, the rights and security of the Armenian population residing in Nagorno-Karabakh and other conflict-afflicted areas and the prompt and safe return of all refugees and internally displaced people to their homes.
  • The report welcomed the numerous steps undertaken by the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaderships to overcome their differences and achieve lasting and sustainable peace in the region and commended their sustained engagement in ongoing negotiations. Members called on both parties not to lose momentum, to agree on concrete steps forward and to ensure a safe, secure and prosperous environment for the benefit of all ethnic populations in the region.
  • Members welcomed Azerbaijan’s commitment to normalising relations with Armenia and recalled the commitment of Armenia to withdraw its armed forces and to guarantee the safety of transport links between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in order to ensure the unimpeded movement of citizens, vehicles and goods in both directions.
  • The Azerbaijani authorities are called on to:
  • - ensure freedom and security of movement along the Lachin corridor as prescribed by the trilateral statement of 9 November 2020;
  • - ensure the safety and respect of the rights of all minorities in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, as this is an essential prerequisite for the creation of conditions conducive to post-war rehabilitation and genuine reconciliation.
  • Both Azerbaijan and Armenia are urged to:
  • - fully implement the tripartite ceasefire statement of 9 November 2020 in all its aspects;
  • - refrain from any hostile rhetoric or actions that may be perceived as inciting hatred or outright violence or as supporting impunity, or from actions that risk undermining efforts to establish and promote an atmosphere conducive to trust, reconciliation, cooperation and sustainable peace, including people-to-people contact;
  • - increase credible confidence-building measures in order to counter polarisation, lack of trust and hate speech and other inflammatory rhetoric;
  • - set up a transitional justice mechanism as a confidence-building step towards acknowledging the suffering on both sides and to work towards reconciliation based on a factual assessment of events that have occurred during the armed conflict, starting in 1988.
  • Enhanced EU involvement
  • The report recalled that the EU’s passive stance during and immediately after the 2020 war gave other regional actors, such as Russia, Iran and Turkey, the opportunity to continue exerting their influence in the region. It also recalled that more active European preventive diplomacy could have prevented such an outcome.
  • Members underlined the EU’s readiness to be more actively involved in settling the region’s protracted conflicts and expressed strong support for the initiative taken by President Charles Michel to convene and mediate bilateral meetings of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan and encouraged the work on the ground of the EU’s special representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia.
  • While welcoming the humanitarian assistance provided by the EU to the conflict-affected population in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, the Commission is called on to ensure additional funding and assistance for demining efforts, including equipment, training and risk education. The Commission is also called on to increase EU assistance to people in need, including in Nagorno-Karabakh, facilitate the implementation of more ambitious confidence building measures, promote interreligious and interethnic dialogue, protect minority rights and enhance people-to-people contacts between citizens on both sides of the border in order to build the foundations for a sustainable and peaceful coexistence.
  • Human rights and fundamental freedoms
  • The report emphasised the need to make any further cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan conditional on the country’s effective and tangible progress towards respect for international standards and international commitments, in particular those related to democracy, human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms, particularly freedom of expression and association, good governance, the rights of minorities, freedom of the media and gender equality.
  • Good governance, justice, rule of law and the fight against corruption
  • Members expressed its concern about the persistent lack of independence, impartiality and effectiveness of the judiciary as well as of transparency in its decisions and about systemic procedural shortcomings. They urged Azerbaijan to reform the judiciary and the prosecution system to ensure the complete independence of the judiciary. They expressed regret at the limited progress made by Azerbaijan on preventing and fighting against corruption.
  • Security and geopolitical challenges
  • While welcoming Azerbaijan’s official support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as well as the humanitarian aid provided to Ukraine during the ongoing war, Members are, however, strongly concerned by the Declaration on Allied Interaction between Azerbaijan and Russia signed in February 2022 in Moscow. They noted, furthermore, the lack of support from Azerbaijan for the resolutions voted on in the UN General Assembly on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and urges Azerbaijan to ensure that sanctions against Russia are not circumvented.
  • The report welcomed the security cooperation between the EU, its Member States and Azerbaijan and fully supported the further deepening of counter-terrorism cooperation. Contrarily, Members condemned the illicit and massively widespread use of the NSO Group’s Pegasus surveillance software and repressive cybersecurity employed by Azerbaijan against journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders, lawyers and politicians and called on the Azerbaijani authorities to refrain from using it.
  • Economic cooperation
  • Recognising the strategic role played by Azerbaijan as a provider of fossil fuel energy to the EU, the report called on the Commission to support foreign investments from international partners aimed at increasing connectivity between the EU and Azerbaijan. The Commission is called on to guarantee that no gas imports from non-EU countries could be whitewashing Russian gas under European sanctions. The Azerbaijani authorities are called on to undertake crucial steps to accelerate the development of renewables and increase energy efficiency.
forecasts/1
date
2023-03-15T00:00:00
title
Vote in plenary scheduled
docs/2
date
2023-02-20T00:00:00
docs
url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2023-0037_EN.html title: A9-0037/2023
type
Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
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EP
events/2/docs
  • url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2023-0037_EN.html title: A9-0037/2023
events/2
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2023-02-20T00:00:00
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Committee report tabled for plenary
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Awaiting Parliament's vote
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2023-03-14T00:00:00
title
Debate in plenary scheduled
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2023-03-13T00:00:00
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Indicative plenary sitting date
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2023-02-09T00:00:00
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Vote in committee
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2023-02-09T00:00:00
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Vote scheduled in committee
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Rules of Procedure EP 159
forecasts/0/date
Old
2023-01-24T00:00:00
New
2023-02-09T00:00:00
forecasts/1
date
2023-03-13T00:00:00
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Indicative plenary sitting date
docs/1/docs/0/url
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docs/1/date
Old
2022-11-17T00:00:00
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2022-11-21T00:00:00
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2022-11-15T00:00:00
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2022-11-17T00:00:00
docs/1
date
2022-11-15T00:00:00
docs
title: PE736.481
type
Amendments tabled in committee
body
EP
docs/0/date
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2022-10-18T00:00:00
New
2022-10-25T00:00:00
docs
  • date: 2022-10-18T00:00:00 docs: url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/AFET-PR-736480_EN.html title: PE736.480 type: Committee draft report body: EP
committees/0
type
Responsible Committee
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EP
committee_full
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associated
False
rapporteur
name: ZOVKO Željana date: 2021-07-14T00:00:00 group: Group of European People's Party abbr: EPP
shadows
committees/0
type
Responsible Committee
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EP
committee_full
Foreign Affairs
committee
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associated
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rapporteur
name: ZOVKO Željana date: 2021-07-14T00:00:00 group: Group of European People's Party abbr: EPP
shadows
name: KYUCHYUK Ilhan group: Renew Europe group abbr: Renew
forecasts
  • date: 2023-01-24T00:00:00 title: Vote scheduled in committee
events
  • date: 2021-12-16T00:00:00 type: Committee referral announced in Parliament body: EP
procedure/dossier_of_the_committee
  • AFET/9/07780
procedure/stage_reached
Old
Preparatory phase in Parliament
New
Awaiting committee decision