ArmInfo.The European Parliament approved a European Parliament resolution of 13 July 2023 on recommendations for reform of European Parliament's rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption.
The resolution reads, in particular, that "whereas Azerbaijan has conducted large-scale influence operations, involving strong suspicions of corruption, against members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; whereas Azerbaijan has managed to avert probes into its elections and whitewash its human rights record."
"The wide scope of the ongoing investigations requires Parliament and the other EU institutions to react with robust and immediate measures to fight in defence of democracy, transparency, integrity and accountability and against corruption; recalls that current efforts to further strengthen the current rules in order to ensure prevention and preparedness with a view to enhancing the transparency and accountability of Parliament and all EU institutions and fighting corruption are of the utmost importance for fostering citizens' trust and ensuring the proper functioning of democratic institutions and are testament to the seriousness of MEPs' commitment to protecting and defending European democracy," the resolution reads.
The European Parliament "affirms the need for solidarity between the Member States and the EU institutions in order to be able to fight effectively against this type of activity; calls for Article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) to be amended to address the problem of malign foreign interference; calls on the Member States to revise their legislation, where necessary, in order to more effectively address foreign interference, including in the democratic processes within the EU institutions."
On 22 April 2018 the Investigation Body set up by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ("PACE") to look into allegations of corruption made against certain members and/or former members of the Assembly presented its report (link) to the Bureau of the Assembly. According to the report, PACE members confirmed Azerbaijani authorities tried to bribe PACE rapporteurs. Among the names were Pedro Agramunt, Jordi Xucla, Alain Destexhe and many others.