“This year cooperation envisages two main issues - within the Eastern Partnership and negotiations, which continue under a new agreement with the Azerbaijani government,” head of the EU Delegation added.

“The agreement will be able to change the attitude and approach to the "Eastern Partnership" program and will allow switching to a new format of cooperation,” Jankauskas said.

Jankauskas also stated that one of the priority issues in the EU is gender equality and women's rights. 

He said gender equality is at the heart of the EU’s Eastern Partnership initiative:

"We pay special attention to gender issues in all projects that we implement in Azerbaijan." 

Reminding that last year, the EU implemented the “Maiden Tower. To be a Woman” project in Azerbaijan, Jankauskas stressed that this project focuses on women's rights.

Note that, for sixty years, the European Union has worked tirelessly to defend women’s rights and to empower them to realise their full potential. In its cooperation with Azerbaijan, the EU is driving real change by strengthening women in business, providing opportunities for quality education and promoting a fair society.

The head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan also stressed the importance of Azerbaijan joining the Istanbul Convention, expressing the EU’s readiness to support Azerbaijan.

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (also known as the Istanbul Convention) is an international agreement of the Council of Europe against violence against women and domestic violence.

The Convention is open for signature since May 11, 2011, in Istanbul. It has been signed by 46 countries and the EU.

Turkey became the first country which ratified the Convention on March 12, 2012, followed by 33 more countries from 2013 through 2019.

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