Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.13 / Trend, V Zhavoronkova /
The EU and Azerbaijan will start negotiations on visa regime facilitation in early February, EU representative in Azerbaijan, Roland Kobia told journalists on Friday.
"The EU delegation will arrive in Azerbaijan to discuss these issues," Kobia said.
He said thanks to this procedure it will be easier for Azerbaijani citizens to visit the EU countries. Simplification of visa regime envisages reducing time for issuing visas, possible reduction in visa costs, and increasing the visa validity period, Kobia said.
The European Union adopted a decision authorising the European Commission to open negotiations for readmission, as well as visa facilitation agreements with Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The decision was taken at the meeting of the Council, held in Brussels on Monday.
Once the Commission estimates that negotiations with the two countries will have been finalised, the Council will need to adopt decisions on signing and concluding the agreements by qualified majority and the European Parliament will need to give its consent.