Azernews.Az

The European Union is holding the latest round of plenary discussions on Association Agreement negotiations with Azerbaijan, head of the European Union delegation on negotiations on Association Agreement, John Kjaer, told journalists on Friday.

The department, headed by Kjaer, functions under the European Neighbourhood Policy, and covers the countries of Eastern Europe and South Caucasus, particularly Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine.

Kjaer is with the two-day visit in Baku to finish plenary sessions on Association Agreement.

The negotiations on the Association Agreement with the South Caucasian countries started in July, 2010. The Agreement is based on joint commitment to develop common values and cover a wide range of areas, including political dialogue, justice, freedom and security, as well as issues of trade and cooperation.

There are four dimensions which the Agreement is based on with four working groups focusing on politics, economy, human rights and democracy, and trade accordingly.

"We have made very good progress and we enable to sustain the progress," Kjaer said.

Nowadays the work is being undertaken mainly in first two working groups which deals with political and energy dimensions, he said. Third and fourth working groups are yet behind.

The EU has some constraints concerning the progress in fourth working group which is trade, Kjaer said.

WTO membership is one of the core requirements for further progress in trade cooperation between the EU and partner countries, including establishing a comprehensive free trade zone the Association Agreement envisages.

Azerbaijan still has observer status in WTO.

Speaking about the recent Eastern Partnership Summit in Warsaw, Kjaer said it demonstrated very well that it is on track. "It is delivering, appreciating, and it is a very good political framework for our relations," he underscored.

Poland which takes the Presidency in the EU Council hosted the second Eastern Partnership Summit on September29-30.

Eastern Partnership includes Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus. Poland was one of the initiators of the program, which offers partner countries to facilitate the visa regime, energy cooperation, to introduce free trade zones and develop cooperation in other fields.