European Parliament
Evgeni Kirilov  (S&D ).
– Mr President, human rights and democracy building, particularly in the EU neighbourhood, are of paramount importance. As in other cases, if there are no urgent reasons we should not deal with them through these urgent procedures. Certainly, as colleagues pointed out, in the case of Azerbaijan there have been setbacks. But what is the urgency now?
It seems it is the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. Colleagues express concern that the authorities might clamp down on their opponents after the contest. I fear the Azeri authorities will regard this resolution as a stab in the back on the eve of the contest, together with the stab they received from neighbouring Iran a day ago. As a result, I am afraid, this resolution will reinforce hardliners.
It would be wise to postpone the vote on this resolution and have a special debate in plenary together with Commissioner Füle. This could be a result-oriented approach, since the Azeri authorities, I am sure, will be aware of the present text of this motion.
(The speaker agreed to take a blue-card question under Rule 149(8))

