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European Parliament To Censure 9 For Azerbaijan Trip

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  • European Parliament To Censure 9 For Azerbaijan Trip

    EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TO CENSURE 9 FOR AZERBAIJAN TRIP

    http://asbarez.com/119463/european-parliament-to-censure-9-for-azerbaijan-trip/
    Tuesday, February 11th, 2014

    The European Parliament building in Strasbourg

    BRUSSELES--The European Parliament ethics committee is set to censure
    a group of nine lawmakers who are suspected of accepting favors from
    Azerbaijan during an electoral observation mission there in October
    last year, the EurActive.com news portal reported Tuesday.

    Kriistina Ojuland of Estonia, Jacek WÅ~Bosowicz of Poland, Slavi
    Binev of Bulgaria, Jirí Maštálka of the Czech Republic, Ivo Vajgl
    of Slovenia, Alexandra Thein of Germany, Hannu Takkula of Finland,
    Oleg Valjalo of Croatia, and Nick Griffin of the UK all flew to
    Azerbaijan last October to monitor the elections.

    However, they purportedly "forgot" to tell Parliament that they had
    been invited by the Azeri government and did not declare the trip on
    their website, as required by the Assembly's new code of conduct.

    The committee is also questioning whether the European Parliament
    members were rewarded for this task, on top of the paid trip.

    After their mission, the group produced a report describing the
    elections as "free and fair." Embarrassingly, their assessment was
    radically different from that of the Organization for Security and
    Co-operation in Europe, which found "serious problems" related to
    freedom of expression and assembly.

    In a report published in November, the European Stability Initiative,
    a think-tank, had already rung the alarm about the way the Azeri
    elections were being monitored more generally.

    According to the European Parliament's new code of conduct, adopted
    last July, any kind of present, invitation to a football game, show
    or trip must be mentioned on the lawmaker's website if its price
    exceeds 150 euros.

    "We are happy to see that the European Parliament actually is doing
    something about the caviar diplomacy snaked in Brussels," said
    European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (ANCA Europe)
    Executive Director Bedo Demirdjian. "I hope they will open their
    eyes on falsifications of history and facts that are being committed
    by Azerbaijan."

    http://www.euractiv.com/eu-elections-2014/european-parliament-examine-meps-news-533386

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