President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola has written to the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Sahiba Gafarova to express her strong disapproval of the statements made in the Azerbaijani Parliament by the Co-Chair of the EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC), Mr Tural Ganjaliyev, on 20 December 2022.
“As reported by Azerbaijani media, Mr Ganjaliyev accused the European Parliament of having “established a mechanism for financing Members of the European Parliament through corruption.” Without presenting any basis for his accusations, he claimed that “income obtained from looted gold deposits in Nagorno-Karabakh goes into the pockets” of Members critical of Azerbaijan’s actions. He also retweeted an article with a direct personal attack against the European Parliament Co-Chair of the EU-Azerbaijan PCC, Ms Marina Kaljurand, falsely accusing her of corrupt practices,” Roberta Metsola wrote.
“The European Parliament is committed to continue building good relations with the Milli Majlis, in the spirit of mutual respect. This may include – and often does – constructive criticism, which should however be based on facts and not on unsubstantiated and slanderous claims,” she added.
The European Parliament President asked to take all possible steps to avoid that similar incidents happen again in the future.
