28.04.2010, 09:51
Conference Report: “The role of the EU EaP Civil Society Forum in European Integration; Platforms of effective opportunities”
Speakers:
Mr. Avaz Hasanov - EaP CSF Steering Committee member, Society for Humanitarian Research
Mr. Ali Huseynov – Member of the Milli Madjlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan, Head of delegation of Azerbaijan Republic in EURONEST, Azerbaijan Lawyers Confederation
H.E Ambassador Roland Kobia - Head of European Union Delegation to Azerbaijan
Mr. Azay Guliyev - Chairman of the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Member of the Milli Madjlis (Parliament)
Mr. Rasim Musabekov – Member of Azerbaijan National Committee for European Integration
Society for Humanitarian Research
Azerbaijan Lawyers Confederation
Friedrich Ebert Foundation
Conference Report, 26 April 2010
“The role of the European Union Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum in European Integration; Platforms of effective opportunities” conducted jointly at the Grand Hotel Europe, Baku Ball Room on April 26, 2010 by the Azerbaijan Lawyers Confederation and with the support from
Venue: Grand Hotel Europe, Baku Ball Room
Date: April 26, 2010
Participants: 70 persons from Government of Azerbaijan, Milli medjlis (Parliament), NGOs, International agencies and independent experts.
Speakers:
Mr. Avaz Hasanov - EaP CSF Steering Committee member, Society for Humanitarian Research
Mr. Ali Huseynov – Member of the Milli Madjlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan, Head of delegation of Azerbaijan Republic in EURONEST, Azerbaijan Lawyers Confederation
H.E Ambassador Roland Kobia - Head of European Union Delegation to Azerbaijan
Mr. Azay Guliyev - Chairman of the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Member of the Milli Madjlis (Parliament)
Mr. Rasim Musabekov – Member of Azerbaijan National Committee for European Integration
Moderators:
Mr. Nadir Adilov – Secretary General, Azerbaijan Lawyers Confederation
Mr. Rashad Huseynli - Representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Azerbaijan
Mr. Ramil Iskandarli – Chairman, Eurasian Lawyers Association
Opening speeches
Mr. Avaz Hasanov - EaP CSF Steering Committee member, Director of the Society for Humanitarian Research, Mr. Ali Huseynov – Member of the Milli Madjlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan, Head of delegation of Azerbaijan Republic in EURONEST, Azerbaijan Lawyers Confederation and Mr. Rashad Huseynli – Representative of the Fridrich Ebert Foundation in Azerbaijan delivered opening speeches. Mr. Avaz Hasanov welcomed participants as well as gave a brief introduction into the aim of the conference which is creation of effective platforms for dialogue between civil society actors and government on acceleration of the process of Eurointegration of Azerbaijan. Mr. Ali Huseynov informed audience about the EURONEST within the Eastern partnership program of EU. He stressed the importance of the involvement of the Parliament, MPs and civil society organizations into the process of Eurointegration of Azerbaijan. Mr. Rashad Huseynli made a short introduction about the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, its aims and goals as well as activities of the Foundation in the region.
The opportunities of Eastern Partnership Program for Azerbaijan
H.E Ambassador Roland Kobia - Head of European Union Delegation to Azerbaijan, was a speaker of this session that moderated by the Mr. Nadir Adilov. Ambassador thanked the organizer of the conference. He mentioned several programs of EU which aimed to promote European values in Azerbaijan and the region, such as TEMPUS, Erasmus Mundus, NGO support programs, students and youth exchange programs etc.). He emphasized that the Eastern Partnership (EaP) program is the new dimensions in building cooperation with the EU neighborhood. EaP program is a set of concrete measures in development of the cooperation with the 6 countries (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia) in political, economic and social spheres. He stressed out the importance of the involvement of the NGOs into the program through the EaP Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF). Regarding the concrete initiatives of EU towards the cooperation with Azerbaijan, Ambassador mentioned the importance of the deepened comprehensive trade agreements, harmonization of the Azerbaijani legislation with the aim to bringing in line with European standards as well as the Comprehensive institution building program as well as the Flagship project initiative. EU wants to see the concrete outcomes and results of its initiatives.
The opportunities for cooperation between the government and civil society
Speaker of this session was Mr. Azay Guliyev, Chairman of the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Member of the Milli Madjlis (Parliament) which had a presentations on the main outcomes and conclusions of the State Council reflected in figures. Mr. Azay Guliyev mentioned that according to the research of the State Council there are 2483 NGOs in Azerbaijan that officially registered, however, in fact only 800 of them are actively operating in reality. NGOs have around 4000 permanent staff, and around 3000 part time staff. Regarding the scope of activities of the civil society organization in the country, most of the m are concentrated on economic, children and youth, human rights and sport issues. He also stressed out the crucial role of the involvement of NGOs in implementing State programs as concrete tools in cooperation between state bodies and civil society. Financial support of the State to NGOs through the State Council is also increased the capacity of NGOs, thus around 5,370,000 AZN were spent to NGOs as a grant support for the last 3 years. Beside the financial support, State Council provides informative, methodical, consultative and organizational support. At the end of the speech Mr. Azay Guliyev gave some recommendations to the conference on strengthening of the cooperation between state bodies and civil society organizations in Azerbaijan, such as improvement of the legislative basis for non-profit organizations, establishing of the NGO management school, preparation of the NGO standard and strengthening of the cooperation of Azerbaijani NGOs with the international and foreign NGOs.
Discussions
During the discussions after the first two speeches a number of the participants shared with the ideas, concerns and recommendations. Discussions are moderated by Mr. Nadir Adilov. Member of Parliament, chairman of Great Creation Party Mr. Fazil Gazanfaroglu, shared with his concerns related to the recent politicizing of the European Union in relations with Azerbaijan. He stressed out that EU uses the same political approaches as Russia, that based on political pressure of Azerbaijan. The social welfare issues are kept in the shadow of the political games. He said that there will be changes on the charter of his political party that previously stated the priority of Euro-Atlantic integration of Azerbaijan.
Mr. Zardusht Alizadeh, chairman of the Board of the Open Society Institute in Azerbaijan, noted the crucial importance of the promotion of the European values in Azerbaijan. He said that the cooperation should be based on the values and trust between the European Union and Azerbaijan.
Mr. Anar Mammadli chairman of the Elections Monitoring Center, emphasized his speech on the problems in this sphere. He mentioned that a lot of things should be dome in order to improve Eurointegration process. Azerbaijani government should show their will, first of all, interest in Eurointegration, but not imitating. Freedom of assembly, freedom of expression should be guaranteed; the issue of the political prisons and state registration of NGOs must be settled.
Mr. Sahil Karimov from the Ministry of the Economic Development had a brief presentation on the role of the Ministry on coordination of the EU aid programs in Azerbaijan. He mentioned the successful realization of the Twinning projects in Azerbaijan as a tool for fruitful cooperation of Azerbaijani governmental structures with the European counterparts.
Director of the Open Society Institute in Azerbaijan Mr. Farda Asadov, expressed his gratitude to the organizers of the conference for creating the platforms for almost all actors of the society that take part in decision making process. He emphasized the importance of the establishing the National Paltforms of the Civil Society Forum of Eastern partnership program and said that the process of the functioning of the National Platform should be permanent. He said that the civil society organizations can play an active role in building close intercultural links.
Mr. Samir Isayev – lawyer, talked about the importance of learning the best experience of other countries during the process of the EU enlargement. The stressed out the importance of the joint decision making mechanisms for government and NGOs in this process.
Mr. Rauf Zeyni – chairman of the NGO Forum, expressed his appreciation with the interest of the European Union on visa liberalizations negotiations with Azerbaijan as a component of the Eastern Partnership program.
Mr. Fuad Babayev – representative of the Ministry of Youth and Sport of Azerbaijan Republic talked to participants about the participation of Azerbaijani youth organizations in the European Youth Exchange programs.
Mr. Sahib Mammadov – chairman of the Citizens’ Labour Rights Protection League, member of the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan a replica in respond to the problems raised by Mr. Anar Mammadli, by mentioning that the lack of the registration of the NGOs should not create any legal obstacles to NGOs, since the legislation give a possibility to NGOs to operate without registration. This statement later supported by Mr. Azay Guliyev - Chairman of the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
At the end of discussions Mrs. Novella Djafarova shared with her concerns related to the common approach of the European Union to Azerbaijan, as a an importance energy partner of Europe and Armenia which is actually an aggressor country. Another expert Ms. Leyla Aliyeva talked about the role of the people-to- people component of the Eastern partnership program and importance of the building relations between people of the region in promotion of the European values. She mentioned that Turkey and Azerbaijan are the only Muslim countries which established and operating on the basis of the European values. At the end of discussions Mr. Roland Kobia expressed his appreciation with the atmosphere of diversity and pluralism at the conference which he sure is the basis for the development.
The opportunities of Civil Society Forum as a component of Eastern Partnership Program (EaP CSF)
Speaker of this session, Mr Avaz Hasanov - Director of Society for Humanitarian Research, EaP CSF Steering Committee member, gave a comprehensive information to Participants about the EaP CSF.
He said that the first civil society forum had been conducted in November 16-17, 2009 in Brussles, while the next conference will take place in Berlin in November 12, 2010. 220 CSOs representatives from the European Union and six Eastern Partnership countries took part at the event. Four Working Groups according to the four thematic platforms of EaP elaborated recommendations.
He mentioned that 4 platforms are operating within the EaP CSF which are:
1. DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS,GOOD GOVERNANCE AND STABILITY
- HUMAN RIGHTS, ELECTIONS AND ELECTION CAMPAIGNS, MEDIA, SECURITY AND PEACE BUILDING, CIVIL SOCIETY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE
2. ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AND CONVERGENCE WITH THE EU POLICIES
- Increasing the performance of social security and social protection systems and intensifying the fight against poverty
- Introducing the principles of sustainable development and adequate responses to climate change
- Facilitating labor mobility
- Supporting the efforts to become WTO members
- Support for consumer protection organizations
- Upgrading the support of business contacts, internationalization and market access
- Support for the social partners and for the social dialogue for the implementation of core labour standards
3. ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY SECURITY ENERGY SECURITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENT, BIODIVERSITY, AND AGRICULTURE, INFORMATION, EDUCATION, CAPACITY BUILDING AND
- AWARENESS RAISING
- VISA FACILITATION AND LIBERALISATION
- EDUCATION
4. CONTACTS BETWEEN PEOPLE
- YOUTH
- CULTURE
Azerbaijan were represented with the 22 accredited NGOs in all platforms. Avaz Hasanov mentioned that the National Platform of Eap CSF will be based only on accredited NGOs but also other interested organizations. He invited NGOs to be active in applying to the next Civil Society Forum which will take place in Berlin in November 2010. The session was moderated by Mr. Ramil Iskandarli – Chairman of Eurasian Lawyers Association.
The Euro integration tendencies in Azerbaijan public opinion
The last session led by the Mr.Rasim Musabekov Member of Azerbaijan National Committee for European Integration, who gave an extremely interesting information to participants about the recent research on the tensions in the Azerbaijani society on foreign integration direction. He mentioned that 40% of population now, prefer neutral policy in comparison with the 25% in 2006. However, according to the results European Union still can be considered as an attractive, since, in spite of some critical opinion of population on the functioning of Council of Europe and OSCE, the EU is still appears as positive institute in the minds of Azerbaijani society. The monitoring of the Media also shows that there are not many critical publications on EU. At the end of his speech he emphasized the importance of the foreign policy directions of Turkey, since Azerbaijans’ policy is closely tightened to policy of Turkey.
Final Discussions
During the discussions at the end of the conference the common consensus on the issues, was that the development of the Azerbaijani National Platform of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership Program is essentially important for the effective implementation of the EaP in Azerbaijan. Some ideas on the future structure, formation and methodology of cooperation were discussed. One of the participants, expert on economic issues, member of the Forum Mr. Vugar Bayramov, complaint on the lack of attention of the Forum to the economic issues which is from his point of view the most important part of the cooperation within the EaP. Another member of the Forum Mr. Hadji Ilgar Ibrahimoglu also complaint that Azerbaijani delegation has an interest mainly on 1st platform related to the human rights and democratization, while there were a complete lack of interest to the rest of the platforms related to the issues such as economy, energy, climate, people-to-people contacts etc. Other participants stressed out the importance of the involvement of the youth organizations into the process. The issues of the monitoring on the fulfillment of the obligations by the Azerbaijani government within the EaP is also mentioned at the conference. As a conclusion remarks, the conference speakers, moderators and participants we agreed on the issue that the negotiations and dialogue between all stakeholders of the process of the Eurointegration of Azerbaijan should continued.
