Azerbaijan-EU consultations start without mandate for talks on new agreement
Azerbaijan has started preliminary consultations on prospects of the cooperation with the European Union (EU), without waiting for the mandate for negotiations on a new agreement.
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev
announced about this while talking to Trend on February 15.
Negotiations on a new agreement on strategic modernization
partnership, which will define the format of future cooperation
with the EU, could be started only after receipt of the EU
Council's mandate.
“We are interested in the accelerating the process of obtaining a
mandate from the EU highest political body to start the negotiation
process that depends on the European Commission,” said
Mammadguliyev.
“Meanwhile, we have started preliminary consultations. The EU
delegation visited Baku in December in this regard and we held a
videoconference with Brussels on February 12,” he added.
The government of Azerbaijan submitted a draft agreement to the EU
in May 2015 as part of the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga.
Mammadguliyev previously noted that the EU is interested in
extending cooperation with Azerbaijan on the issues of ensuring
energy security, and in the spheres as transport and fight against
terrorism.
Currently, the bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan
are regulated on the basis of agreement on partnership and
cooperation, which was signed in 1996 and entered into force in
1999.
A new agreement envisages the adjustment of Azerbaijan’s
legislation and procedures to the EU’s most important international
and trade norms and standards, which should lead to an improvement
in the access of Azerbaijani goods to the EU markets.
Today the EU is Azerbaijan’s main trade partner.
The share of European countries in Azerbaijan’s foreign trade was
46.96 percent in 2015, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs
Committee (SCC).
Currently, 31.92 percent and 59.1 percent of the Azerbaijani
imports and exports respectively accounted for the share of the EU
countries.
European countries mainly supply Azerbaijan with machinery and
transport equipments, and import petroleum products.
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