Azernews.Az

BRUSSEL – Representatives of the countries participating in the European Union’s Eastern Partnership program will join a meeting of the EU and the Council of Europe in Brussels on Friday.

The first such meeting between the two organizations aiming to discuss Eastern Partnership is to be attended by one representative from each of the participating former Soviet countries. Azerbaijan will be represented by Foreign Ministry official Farah Ajalova.

The EU and CoE signed an agreement last December on allocating 4 million euros for Eastern Partnership, aimed at forging the European Union's closer ties with six East European countries through trade agreements and visa liberalizations. The amount, allotted by the European Commission for 30 months, funds a number of projects in the member states seeking to improve electoral practices and the judiciary systems, combat corruption and cyber crimes, and promote good governance.

Eastern Partnership is a Polish-Swedish initiative under the EU Neighborhood Policy covering Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine and Armenia. The program envisages the allocation of 600 million euros to these countries until 2013 to strengthen state institutions, control borders and help small companies. The program does not envisage EU membership, but instead covers facilitating the visa regime, energy cooperation, and the introduction of free trade zones.

Belarus has lately been expelled from the program after the presidential elections held in the country were not recognized by the EU.