Speech by High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell at the EP plenary. (video)

Speech delivered by Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit

Today’s debate is taking place less than three weeks before the beginning of the COP29 United Nations climate change conference in Baku. The conference will gather world leaders and the international climate community to advance on the global climate agenda. But it will also draw the world’s attention to the conference’s host country [Azerbaijan]. 

Our debate today is therefore very timely. COP29 is an opportunity for the Azerbaijani authorities to demonstrate the commitment to their international human rights obligations. It is an opportunity to reverse the worrying trend of the past years of an increasingly shrinking space for civil society, intensifying repression of independent media and dissenting voices, and the growing number of arbitrary arrests. 

This house has drawn attention to a number of particularly unsettling cases, including the fate of Gubad Ibadoghlu, Ilhamiz Guliyev, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, Alasgar Mammadli and Anar Mammadli. There are more, many more, including since this summer, Bahruz Samadov, a young scholar and peace activist studying in Prague, who was arrested while visiting family in Azerbaijan. 

Our position is clear: the government of Azerbaijan should release all those who have been detained for exercising their fundamental rights, including journalists, human rights defenders and political activists. Torture and ill-treatment are absolutely prohibited under international law, and any reports of abuses should be promptly and impartially investigated. The authorities must ensure due process, dignified treatment of all detainees and access to proper health care, in accordance with international standards. We in particular urge the government to lift Dr Ibadoghlu’s travel ban without delay to allow him to access the medical treatment he needs abroad.  

We also hope that the Azerbaijani government reconsiders the travel ban imposed on 76 Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) members, merely for how they voted in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. Azerbaijan’s participation in the Council of Europe is in the fundamental interest of all Azerbaijanis and all of Europe. 

COP29 offers the international community an opportunity to reiterate these messages. During his two recent visits to Baku, Commissioner [for Climate Action, Wopke] Hoekstra raised the human rights situation with the authorities and met with civil society representatives, including 2024 Sakharov prize finalist Dr Ibadoghlu. 

COP29 is also a historic opportunity for peace. Azerbaijan and Armenia have never been so close to overcoming decades of conflict. The Conference will be a historic chance for Azerbaijan and Armenia to demonstrate to the world their commitment to peace, and to muster the political will to sign a peace agreement. As European Union, we continue to lend our full support to the normalisation process and we stand ready to mobilise the necessary resources to allow all sides to reap the benefits of a lasting and sustainable peace. 

Azerbaijan faces important choices – both as regards the human rights situation in the country, and the peace process with its neighbour. We should keep our channels of communication open and use our relationship to promote human rights, peace and stability – in Azerbaijan and in the whole region, said Nicolas Schmit.

Later  MFA Spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada called “baseless” allegations made by Nicolas Schmit.

“We strongly reject unacceptable, unfounded and totally biased anti-Azerbaijani statement delivered by Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, during the debate at the European Parliament on 22 October.

The statement of the Commissioner being prepared by the European External Action Service (EEAS), is fully detached from reality and is another ongoing unsuccessful attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan.

The claim that some Azerbaijani citizens are being prosecuted due to their political beliefs or viewpoints, or that criminal proceedings involving individuals introducing themselves as journalists or human rights advocates have political motives are fundamentally wrong.

Such a harmful approach by the EEAS and the European Parliament has long ago proved to be ineffective and leading nowhere, does nothing but complicate the Azerbaijan-European relations.

In light of total ignorance and indifference by the relevant European Union institutions to the aggression by Armenia against Azerbaijan that lasted almost 30 years, entrenched systemic problems in some EU countries in the field of human rights, rising Islamophobia and hideous neo-colonial policy, the loss of lives in prisons as a result of political persecution and during the protests such as “yellow vests,” as well as bloodshed in protests in New Caledonia and other overseas territories, the European Commissioner has no moral right to talk about the human rights issues in Azerbaijan and peace efforts between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Moreover, attempts to interlink the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) with political motivated issues irrelevant to the essence of addressing climate change, once again demonstrated the real face of some European politicians.

We strongly urge the European Parliament and overall the EU side to abandon its unilateral position, which is against the peace and stability in the region”, - reads comments of the MFA of Azerbaijan.