WRITTEN QUESTION E-2571/03 by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission. Violations of freedom of religion in Azerbaijan.
Date: 2003-08-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Azerbaijan, EU relations, freedom of religious beliefs, religious discrimination

C 88 E/418

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.4.2004

Under the Schengen Agreement, European citizens are entitled to move freely on Union territory without
being subjected to national constraints.

In some parts of Italy (for example Tuscany) many local authorities require tourists to pay entrance fees,
thus restricting de facto the free movement of persons at no charge.

Does the Commission agree that, without overstepping its powers, the Union should intervene in order to
guarantee the safe, free movement of persons at no charge on Union territory and call on Member States
to remove the difficulties currently preventing it?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(16 September 2003)

The information provided in the question does not allow the Commission to have a clear and complete
assessment of the problem referred.

The Commission would like to recall from a general point of view that the Court of Justice has ruled, in its
judgment of 16 January 2003 (case C-388/01) with regard to entrance fees to monuments etc., that
advantageous rates discriminating between foreign and national tourists without any direct link with the
need to protect either public order, security or health (see Article 46 EC) or any other overriding
requirement in the general interest are incompatible with Community law (Articles 12 and 49 EC).

(2004/C 88 E/0425)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2571/03

by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission

(6 August 2003)

Subject: Violations of freedom of religion in Azerbaijan

Given that:

(cid:1) on 13 July 2003, at a private flat in Gyanja (Azerbaijan), police burst into the meeting of a Baptist
group, alleging it to be illegal, confiscating all the group’s religious publications, including Bibles and
hymnbooks, and arresting two people;

(cid:1) the two persons arrested, Mr Ismailov and Mr Musayev, were filmed at the police station: they were
interrogated for approximately three-and-a-half hours and their identity cards were confiscated. The
film was later broadcast on local television;

(cid:1) Mr Ismailov was fined 65 000 manats under Article 299 of the Code of Administrative Offences,
which punishes ‘violation of the regulations on the creation and functioning of religious associations’;

(cid:1) Mr Musayev, who had recently returned to Azerbaijan from Russia, was fined 165 000 manats under

Article 300 of the same code, which punishes ‘religious propaganda by foreigners’;

(cid:1) the Gyanja Baptist church belongs to the International Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/
Baptists, which rejects the notion of official registration of religious associations in the former Soviet
republics, believing that such registration leads to state interference and unacceptable restrictions on
church activity;

(cid:1) the authorities concede that believers have the right to ‘meet privately’, but insist that such meetings of
unregistered groups are illegal even if the laws on religious observance do not make registration
mandatory;

(cid:1) Azerbaijan’s international human rights obligations give it no authority to place restrictions on

freedom of belief or association.

8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 88 E/419

In view of the excellent relations of cooperation existing between the EU and Azerbaijan, can the
Commission state whether it is aware of the above facts and indicate what initiatives, in the context of the
cooperation relationship, could constitute an effective and workable means of inducing Azerbaijan to
ensure respect for freedom of religion?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(18 September 2003)

The Commission is aware of the arrest of Mr Ismailov and Mr Musayev.

The Commission is of the opinion that dialogue with Azerbaijan within the Partnership and Cooperation
framework will provide the best mechanism for addressing the issues to which the Honourable Member
refers. Therefore,
issue of freedom of belief with the Azerbaijani
authorities at the earliest opportunity.

it is proposed to raise the general

The Commission is working actively with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
Office for Democratic Institutions on promoting human rights in Azerbaijan.

(2004/C 88 E/0426)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2576/03

by Philip Claeys (NI) to the Commission

(6 August 2003)

Subject:

‘Enlargement Weekly’ only in English

The Commission web site quite correctly pays attention to the enlargement process that the European
Union is currently undergoing. A separate home page is even devoted to enlargement, which includes a
feature entitled ‘Enlargement Weekly’. In its own words, the newsletter provides ‘an overview of where
European enlargement has got to, who’s doing what in the EU,
in the institutions and the candidate
countries, and how the main challenges are being met’.

Unlike the remainder of the web site which, quite correctly, appears in all the official languages of the
European Union, ‘Enlargement Weekly’ is, however, available only in English.

What are the grounds for this linguistic restriction?

Is the Commission planning to have the newsletter translated into all the official languages? If so, when
will the relevant texts be available in the other official languages of the EU?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(15 September 2003)

Increasing the multi-lingual nature of the Enlargement website has been a priority since its relaunch in
2002. The first priority was to provide in all Community languages the main pages, main texts, and those
parts of the website, which are not subject to continuous revision, as is the case in much of the
enlargement process. This is an ongoing process. The Enlargement Weekly Newsletter
to which
the Honourable Member refers is not an official document of the Commission, but an element of the
Communication Strategy on enlargement that the Commission makes publicly available as it is specified in
the text at the bottom of the web page. It is produced every week on Monday in order to give a
continuous and rapidly available account of
the main developments in the enlargement process.
A summary of the main items is e-mailed the following day to approximately 20 000 persons around
the world who are subscribed to it. Therefore, it requires a rapid production, which would inevitably be
delayed and more expensive if more than one language version were required. It is only because of these
reasons that the production in only one language is used in this specific case.

There are no plans to produce any other linguistic versions of the newsletter.