Azerbaijan, EU to ink agreement on visa simplification
By Nazrin Gadimova
Draft agreements between the European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan on the visa regime simplification and readmission have been initialed by Head of Azerbaijani mission to the EU, Ambassador Fuad Isgandarov and Director General for Internal Affairs of the European Commission Stefano Manservisi.
Following this initial step, the signing of this agreement is expected in November, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry reported on July 30.
The agreement on the simplification of the visa regime will give great opportunities to Azerbaijani citizens. Under the agreement, scientists and students traveling on educational matters, patients visiting for treatment, state and governmental officials, as well as persons visiting Europe for participation in sport, cultural and humanitarian events will get visas through simplified procedures.
At the same time, the agreement will cut the number of documents for getting a visa, visa charges and the opportunity to get long-term and multiple-entry visas. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani citizens, who intend to visit relatives living in Europe, will benefit certain privileges.
The EU and Azerbaijan are maintaining relations under the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which was signed in 1996 and came into force in 1999. In 2009, the EU passed a decision to sanction negotiations on the conclusion of bilateral association agreements of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia with the organization. These agreements will be a new practical instrument to replace the bilateral action plans.
Azerbaijan is also included in the EU's Eastern Partnership program, adopted at the initiative of Poland and Sweden and approved at the EU summit in Brussels in 2008. The Eastern Partnership is aimed at political and economic rapprochement of six post-Soviet states with the EU.