Preserving Azerbaijan’s status as a “candidate country” in the Transparency Initiative in the Mining Industry (EITI) indicates that Baku should remove all obstacles to the development of civil society, Turan was told by a member of the NGO Coalition for Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries Ogtay Gyulalyev, commenting on the decision made today in Astana, the decision of the Board EITI in Azerbaijan.
According to him, a coalition of NGOs used to call on the board to preserve the "candidate status" for Azerbaijan. Recently, the authorities partially met their obligations under the EITI: lifted the ban on leaving the country and unfrozen accounts of some members of the NGO coalition.
On 21 October the president issued a decree on simplification of procedures for registration of foreign grants on the principle of "single window". A lawsuit against the Gyulalyev, which started in 2012, because of which he could not travel abroad, was closed. However, according to activists, there remain unsolved problems.
In particular, it is necessary to cancel reactionary amendments to the legislation in recent years, to simplify registration procedures for NGOs, to cancel large administrative fines for violations of the activities of NGOs and others.
Gyulalyev also pointed out the need to end the persecution of not only members of the NGO coalition, but all activists. While these barriers are not removed, the international financial institutions will not provide loans to Azerbaijan.
The executive secretary of the REAL Movement Natig Jafarli believes that the EITI do not want to completely interrupt the relations with Azerbaijan, because it only worsens the situation of civil society.
He also believes that until the authorities of Azerbaijan do not solve all the problems of civil society, international financial institutions will not provide loans.
In the coming years, Azerbaijan has to borrow about $8-10 billion for the development of "Shahdeniz-2" gas field, the construction of Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline and Transadrtiatic gas pipeline. The funds on favorable terms can be obtained from the World Bank, IMF, EBRD. However, in the decision-making process they will be guided by the EITI.
Therefore, the decision to give EITI Azerbaijan further six months to improve the situation is a chance for the government to rectify the situation.-06B--
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