Azerbaijan, Baku, November 25 / Trend , M.Aliyev / The main attention during the discussions of Council of Europe's Ago monitoring group in Baku was given to the conduct of elections - municipal elections this year and parliamentary elections next year, the head of the Ago monitoring group, the ambassador of Romania to the Council of Europe Stelian Stoyan said to press conference in Baku as a result of his visit to Azerbaijan.
According to him, the talks also covered the situation with the media of Azerbaijan, reforms in the court and penal service, as well as the situation with corruption, Azerbaijan's obligations before the Council of Europe.
Stoyan said that during the visit to Azerbaijan, meetings were held with the President, the Speaker of Parliament, Head of the Presidential Administration, leaders of opposition parties who have been detained in Azerbaijan, journalists, representatives of NGOs.
Municipal elections in Azerbaijan will be held on December 23. During these elections, 15,682 members will be elected for 1,718 municipalities. Formerly elections were held twice - in 1999 and 2004.
According to Stoyan, the visits during the monitoring give an opportunity to assess the situation in the country. "This is one of the annual visits, and it was made with various groups to better study the situation in the country," he said.
According to him, as a result of the visit, the Ago group has a primary association. Currently it is possible that to say that the Council of Europe intends to cooperate with Azerbaijan in the future as well, because positive moments are felt. After our visit to Istanbul, we intend to work on projects to provide support to Azerbaijan by the Council of Europe, said the head of the monitoring group.
According to him, monitoring indicated some positive moments in Azerbaijan for the implementation of the commitments before the Council of Europe. "In particular, the report of Azerbaijan on torture has already been posted on the website. This year, for the first in the country, conditions were created for this," said Stoyan.
Moreover, in his opinion, there is advancement in the election of judges, their training, conditions in prisons and other custodial facilities are improved in the country. .
According to Stoyan, during the visit, the Ago group met with Eynulla Fatullayev, Ganimat Zahidov, Adnan Hajizadeh and Emin Milli. "I can say that we were immediately given an opportunity to meet with them. I think that the situation with the human rights is improving in Azerbaijan," he said.
Stoyan said that the Ago group will cooperate with Azerbaijan unless all questions on the country's obligations before the Council of Europe are resolved. "Some issues have been resolved in the legislation, but still there are questions about the obligations," he said.