EU hopes to agree on new partnership agreement with Azerbaijan till summer 2019

  13 December 2018    Read: 1494
 EU hopes to agree on new partnership agreement with Azerbaijan till summer 2019

The EU and Azerbaijan intend to agree on a draft partnership agreement on cooperation till May 2019, AzVision.az reports citing Head of the EU delegation in Azerbaijan Kestutis Jankauskas as saying.

The political and trade components of the agreement were discussed in early December 2018, Jankauskas told reporters in Baku on Dec. 13.

Following these discussions, great progress was achieved, especially in the trade component of the document, he said.

The negotiations on trade issues will be also held in the format of a videoconference till the end of December 2018, Jankauskas added.

The next round on the new agreement as a whole will be held in Brussels in late January 2019, he added.

The European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan in November 2016.

The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement and should better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today.

The agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighborhood Policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan.

Currently, bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of an agreement on partnership and cooperation that was signed in 1996 and entered into force in 1999.

The new agreement envisages the compliance of Azerbaijan’s legislation and procedures with the EU’s most important international trade norms and standards, which should lead to the improvement of Azerbaijani goods’ access to the EU markets.


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