Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 14
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
The signing of a new Azerbaijan-EU partnership agreement will raise the cooperation to a qualitatively new level and create legal frameworks for the comprehensive development of relations, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told Trend November 14.
The European Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan November 14, the message on the council’s website said.
“Azerbaijan welcomes and approves the EU’s preparation of the agreement on comprehensive cooperation with Azerbaijan and the issuance of a mandate for negotiations in this area,” Hajiyev said.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn at the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga in May 2015.
Mammadyarov delivered a draft agreement on strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and the EU to Hahn and expressed the intention of the Azerbaijani side to develop cooperation with EU in that area.
The new agreement should replace the 1996 partnership and cooperation agreement and should better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today, said the message on the European council’s website.
The agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighbourhood Policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan, said the message.
The new agreement envisages the compliance of Azerbaijan’s legislation and procedures with the EU’s most important international trade norms and standards, which should lead to the improvement of Azerbaijani goods’ access to the EU markets.