PACE SPRING SESSION STARTS
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 10 2006
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly started its spring
session today.
The correspondent of the Europe bureau of APA reports from the session
that before the session PACE President Rene van der Linden held a press
conference dedicated to the opening of the spring session. Informing
abut the issues to be debated at the session, van der Linden also
touched on the rerun of parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. The
PACE president said they focus their attention on the elections in
Azerbaijan and added that this issue will be on the agenda of the
summer session.
“Azerbaijan is the member of PACE. We shall focus our attention on
the rerun of parliamentary elections scheduled for May 13 and will be
discussed at the summer session,” Mr.van der Linden said. “Depending
on the process of the elections, PACE might consider the issue on
Azerbaijan delegation’s mandate,” he added.
PACE president also touched on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.
Noting that both Azerbaijan and Armenia are Council of Europe member
countries, Mr.van der Linden expressed interest in reaching a positive
result in the negotiating process for the settlement of the conflict
between the two countries.
Saying that it is regrettable that the Presidents of the two countries
could not reach an agreement at Rambouillet, van der Linden stressed
the importance of the sides reaching a consensus to solve the problem.
Commenting on changing of format of the talks, replacement of mediator
OSCE Minsk Group with the Council of Europe, the PACE president did not
consider it advisable to replace the OSCE Minsk Group with COE format.
Then the spring session of PACE started. PACE President Rene van
der Linden made an opening speech. Parliamentarian from the former
Yugoslavia Igor Ivanovski presented his report on the conclusion of
the bureau session. The report also touched on the re-elections in
Azerbaijan. Mr.Ivanovski proposed to reconsider the number of the
members of the Subcommittee on Nagorno Garabagh.