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Azerbaijan-EU Readmission agreement not complete

31 October 2013 14:48 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijan-EU Readmission agreement not complete

By Nigar Orujova

An agreement on visa facilitation between Azerbaijan and the EU is likely to be signed during the Eastern Partnership summit, the Charge D'Affaires of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan said on October 30.

The summit will be held in Vilnius on November 28-29.

"I can say with high probability that the agreement on the simplification of the visa regime will be signed at the summit, which will be held in Vilnius in November," Toralf Pilz said.

"The second part of the agreement - the agreement on readmission - is not yet completed. There are certain technical issues that need to be clarified," he added.

Signing the readmission agreement is scheduled for 2014, but both documents will enter into force at the same time; therefore, the agreement on the visa regime will come into force after signing the readmission agreement.

The agreement on the simplification of visa entry for citizens of Azerbaijan provides for a reduction of the list of documents submitted along with the visa application and the possibility of issuing multiple entry visas with a longer validity period, thus reducing the cost of visas or even making them free for particular categories, and envisions time limits for processing an application.

According to the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule, the EU believes in achieving progress on the visa facilitation and readmission agreements between the EU and Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev believes a complete abolition of the visa regime between Azerbaijan and the EU could be the next step after its facilitation.

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 the bilateral association agreements of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia with the organization. The negotiations on the Association Agreement started in July 2010.

The Association Agreement covers four areas; political dialogue -including issues of security, justice and human rights-, economic, social and humanitarian issues, and trade. Negotiations are conducted regarding all these areas.

Opportunities will be provided in the future for the export of Azerbaijani goods to the EU countries. Azerbaijan already enjoys duty-free export of several thousand types of commodities to the EU countries, but the quality of these goods is said to be a problem.

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