European Parliament
Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy,
on behalf of the ALDE Group.
Mr President, in Baku last month I had the opportunity to ask President Aliyev about his plans for improving the situation with regard to democracy, human rights and freedom of the media in his country, especially as we look towards the Eurovision Song Contest this week. With astonishing self-confidence, he answered me that there was no reason to improve the situation because it was already perfect.
To be honest, I am not surprised by his self-confidence because, let us face it, the world, including the EU, is interested in Azerbaijan only because of gas and oil and important pipelines to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; we are not interested in the people of Azerbaijan. Commissioner Füle may have criticised the Azeri human rights situation, but two weeks later President Barroso was in Baku, and he did not mention human rights once. He was talking only about energy. So, is the message from the EU ‘Never mind human rights – energy is what it’s all about’?
If we continue to let energy interests take democracy and human rights hostage, the situation in Azerbaijan will never improve. Let us be honest: in the long term, the EU also secures its energy interests much better by fighting for a stable democracy in Azerbaijan than by supporting the current regime of President Aliyev.

