EITI Coalition Council Reports on Failure of Multilateral Group’s Meeting

The meeting of the Multilateral Group (MLG) on Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) on February 2 was disrupted, the EITI Coalition Council reported. The reason for this was the unjustified part of the former member of MLG Alimammad Nuriyev in the group meeting and his attempts to prevent adoption of the agenda, as well as the actions of MLG Chairman Shahmar Movsumov, which created conditions for Nuriyev's presence at the meeting.

According to the EITI standard and the memorandum of understanding, MLG is updated and approved annually.

In this case, the Coalition Council chose six members of MLG and sent the relevant documents to the EITI secretariat. However, to the group meeting on February 2, along with the new MLG members, former members were invited.

In protest against the violation of regulations the newly elected members of the MLG Board of the coalition left the session.

“The Coalition Council believes that such an organization of the meeting, namely the change in the agenda under pressure from a former MLG member, is contrary to the EITI standards and MLG requirements,” the statement said.

According to the authors of the statement, it weakens the position of Azerbaijan at the meeting of EITI International Board for, scheduled for March 8-9 in Bogotá.

Note that according to EITI standards, the government is required to cooperate with civil society, creating MLG to control using EITI. The government should ensure transparency and openness, and the representation of all the interested parties. -71D-