Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Italy’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Giampaolo Cutillo stated that Azerbaijan is very important for the European Unions and his country.

The envoy made the remarks during the presentation of the EU-funded twinning project for the Azerbaijani Culture and Tourism Ministry in Baku on March 14.

“We continue to strengthen our relations,” Cutillo said, adding that Italy and Azerbaijan have a lot in common.

“Azerbaijan is a young country, and Italy is relatively young independent country in the EU,” he said, noting that Azerbaijan made very important contribution to the preservation of Italy’s heritage.

Being one of Azerbaijan's major partners in Europe, Italy has been Azerbaijan's number one trade partner for the past eight years. Azerbaijan is the largest supplier of oil to Italy, and with the launch of the Southern Gas Corridor will supply Shah Deniz gas to this country.

The EU twining project realized by Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism will last two years. The project, which is aimed to modernize legal policy and management system in the culture sector, costs 1.2 million euros.

The project will be implemented in two main areas such as the overall development of the system, taking into account the legislation, structures and management, development of new effective model of management of the national cultural heritage and the protection of cultural heritage, the development of the Work Plan for the Protection and Conservation of Cultural Heritage.

Meanwhile, Head of the EU Delegation in Azerbaijan, Malena Mard told journalists that the EU will continue to have exploratory talks on the new bilateral agreement with Azerbaijan.

She noted that the EU and Azerbaijan had exploratory talks during the Baku visit of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, and agreed to continue to build on this agreement.

This is a precondition from the EU side to ask for a mandate from the EU Council to be able to start formal negotiations on the new bilateral agreement with Azerbaijan, Mard explained.

Currently, bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of the partnership and cooperation agreement, signed in 1996 and entered into force in 1999.

The new agreement envisages bringing Azerbaijan’s legislation and procedures closer to the most important international and trade standards of the EU. This process is meant to improve the access of Azerbaijani products to the EU markets.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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