Baku, Azerbaijan, May 22
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan made concessions to the EU by signing the declaration of the Riga summit of the Eastern Partnership, Novruz Mammadov, the deputy head of Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department, told Trend May 22.
"During the Riga summit, the EU members and the participating countries of the Eastern Partnership had a broad exchange of views on the current status and the prospects for cooperation," Mammadov said.
The top official added that representatives of all participating countries addressed the summit and each of them expressed their position.
"A joint declaration was supposed to be adopted following the summit."
The Azerbaijani side addressed the summit and expressed dissatisfaction with the declaration, its spirit, the attitude to the Azerbaijani-EU cooperation, EU position on Azerbaijan's problems, according to the top official.
"We have serious claims against this document," said Mammadov. "A certain tension emerged at the summit due to these claims and all EU leaders, heads of the participating states interfered in this issue."
Taking all these into account, later, Azerbaijan made concessions to the EU and agreed to sign the declaration by stating that the country will clarify its special position on the declaration, he added.
"This position will reflect all Azerbaijan's claims."
Eastern Partnership envisages the political association and economic integration of the EU with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The last three countries signed an agreement on associated partnership with the EU in 2014.
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