Azernews.Az

The European Union supports expanding its cooperation with Azerbaijan, considering the South Caucasus republic’s being an attractive country for the 27-member bloc, says Roland Kobia, head of the EU delegation to the country.
Addressing a Baku conference on the role of the Eastern Partnership program and civil society in European integration on Monday, Kobia said the EU would like to see Azerbaijan as the most developed country in the region. Eastern Partnership, which aims to boost the bloc’s cooperation with its ex-Soviet partners, including Azerbaijan, serves that goal, he said.
Kobia said the EU backs not only economic integration with the participating states but also that in other areas. The bloc is also aiming at a political rapprochement and intends to share its experience with these countries as part of the Eastern Partnership.
Kobia pledged that the EU will increase its financial assistance to Azerbaijan within the program, which was initially estimated at 92 million euros. The EU ambassador did not specify how much the aid package would increase but said the EU was seeking to foster a more rapid expansion of its cooperation with Azerbaijan.
According to Kobia, 20m euros of the amount will be channeled into institutional building projects, while another part will be spent on developing the country’s civil society institutions. "The EU wants Azerbaijani civil society institutions to step up their work in the fields they are conventionally not represented in."
Zardusht Alizada, an Azerbaijani analyst, says there is "a romantic approach" to Europe among Azerbaijanis. According to him, the EU, in fact, "is not an ideal organization, but a political union", which is attractive for Azerbaijan due to its democratic values.
"We should not indulge in pessimism after seeing shortfalls within the EU. On the contrary, we should capitalize on Europe’s good example. The Eastern Partnership program could be a solid basis for that," Alizada said.
Fazil Mustafa, the leader of Azerbaijan’s Great Establishment Party, which is adhering to a mild opposition stance, opined that the Eastern Partnership has failed. According to him, recent developments in the region have crossed out chances for the possibility of implementing the program. He explained that during the 2008 brief war in Georgia, the EU backed down from confronting Russia and made things difficult for the countries seeking EU accession. Consequently, five of the six republics participating in the Eastern Partnership "continue to take steps backward," Mustafa concluded.
The party leader noted that it has lately been clearly seen that the EU is no longer an organization promoting social well-being, but, rather, a political bloc.
"The EU, by delaying Turkey’s admission under different pretexts, is losing its influence in Azerbaijan as well," Mustafa said. He added that the EU, which is demanding that Turkey reopen its sealed border with Armenia, could put forth unacceptable conditions to Azerbaijan in the future with regard to Armenia, which has been occupying part of Azerbaijan’s territory for nearly two decades.*