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The spokespersons of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, and Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, issued the following statement on the enactment of amendments to the legislation on non-governmental organisations in Azerbaijan. The statement can be found on the EU official site.

They expressed concerns by recent amendments to NGO legislation in Azerbaijan restricting the environment for an independent and critical civil society, especially in the field of human rights and democracy.

“In view of Azerbaijan's upcoming chairmanship of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, the High Representative and the Commissioner call upon the Azerbaijani authorities to abide by their international commitments and to review the law on NGOs with a view to addressing the concerns formulated by the Venice Commission. In particular, they call upon the authorities in Azerbaijan to improve and facilitate the registration procedures for international NGOs, creating an environment conducive for all NGOs to carry out their legitimate activities,” the statement reads.

The legislative amendments, that are restricting the activities of NGOs furthermore, have been approved by the Parliament at the end of last year and have been approved by the President of Azerbaijan last week.

On January 27, 2014 more than 100 non-governmental organizations of Azerbaijan signed a petition to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in connection with the adoption of these amendments.