BAKU, September 30. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s Milli Mejlis (Parliament) on Friday passed a resolution on resumption of relations with the European Parliament that were suspended a year ago over the European Parliament’s resolution criticizing the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.
In its today’s resolution, the Azerbaijani parliament reminded that on September 14, 2015 it had decided to terminate its membership in the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly as a response to the biased political action. The Azerbaijani parliament also suspended its participation in the European Union-Azerbaijan parliamentary cooperation committee.
"In April 2016, the European Parliament’s leadership sent a delegation of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly to Azerbaijan to resume dialogue between Milli Mejlis and the European Parliament. A delegation of the European Parliament visited Azerbaijan on September 19-21 to continue talks in this area. The delegation met with a number of Azerbaijani officials," the resolution says.
The delegation was received by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. During that meeting, Sajjad Karim, a member of the European Parliament from Great Britain, said that Azerbaijan is an important country for the European Parliament which is interested in expanding ties with Baku.
In a statement after the visit, the European Parliament’s delegation expressed regret over the absence of dialogue with Azerbaijan’s Milli Mejlis for more than a year and promised to take measures to prevent in future situation that may entail suspension of relations."
"Azerbaijan’s Milli Mejlis thinks that the steps taken by the European Parliament towards resumption of dialogue and cooperation pave the way for resuming its membership in the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly and the EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Cooperation Committee," the document says.