mr president democracy and respect for human rights and the rule of law are an integral part of the new association agreement which is currently being negotiated between azerbaijan and the european union
without respect for these principles it is impossible to see how azerbaijan can have a common future with its european partners
let me also join those colleagues who point out that we need to be very clear and objective when we talk to our partners in the eastern partnership countries
we should not believe that we can get away with simply bashing belarus because there are severe problems in azerbaijan and in several other eastern partnership countries and i hope that the forthcoming study commissioned by the subcommittee on human rights will give some guidance on how we should talk to these countries about their human rights situation
