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Following the Azerbaijani authorities' last-minute decision to withdraw a visa already granted to a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), René Rouquet* (France, SOC), effectively preventing him from attending the meetings of the PACE Bureau and Standing Committee in Baku on 22 and 23 May, the Bureau of PACE decided today in Baku that no more Assembly committee meetings will be held in Azerbaijan for two years. See the corresponding statement on PACE site.

Note that this week the Azerbaijani side refused to give an entry visa to Vice-President of the Assembly, a member of the French delegation to the PACE René Rouquet. The latter some time ago with some of his French colleagues had visited Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, because of this reason he had been included in the "black list" Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

PACE Bureau decided that violation of General Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe and the Paris Protocol has occurred, which provide the principle of inviolability and free move of the parliamentarians.

The Bureau had previously decided, on 5 September 2011, that PACE committees would not hold any meetings for a period of two years in member States that did not honour their commitments regarding freedom of movement of Assembly members on official journeys, particularly in connection with the issue of visas. This provision was applied to Georgia in November 2013.

However, the measure decided today could be lifted by the Bureau if the Azerbaijani authorities guarantee freedom of movement of Assembly members in Azerbaijan when travelling on Assembly business.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan has published a list of individuals, which became personae non gratae for Azerbaijan because of visiting Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and are denied access to the country. There are 335 people on the list at the moment of publishing. Specifically, the given list includes the member of the parliament of the Southern Wales state of Australia Gledice Berezhiklyan, Russian State Duma deputy Oleg Pokholkov, an employee at the Ukrainian magazine “Profil” Varvara Zhlutenko, reporter of “The Washington Post” in Moscow Will Englund, Austrian conductor Ernest Hoetzl, Spanish opera singer Montserrat Caballé, and others.