Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 June / Trend corr I. Khalilova/ "In the July beginning, European Commission will send a delegation to Baku to discuss with the Azerbaijani Government a range of fields to be included into national indicative programs for 2009 and 2010 within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP," Rufat Akhundov, chief executive of the Tacis (Technical Assistance for the Commonwealth of Independent States) Coordinating Office for Azerbaijan said on 11 June.
After that sector analysis will be held to determine the directions of technical assistance for next two years.
According to Mammadov, indicative program for 2008 with a budget of approximately 21-22mln euro will be discussed with the EU experts. Two directions are being considered - justice and agrarian sector. The suggestions in the justice field were developed in December 2007. These envisage support to the penitentiary system, regional courts, Justice Academy attached to the Justice Ministry, as well as bringing the country's legislation closer to the European standards. The second direction will envisage agricultural reforms in the light of Azerbaijan's entering the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The ENP budget envisaged for Azerbaijan, for 2007-2010, totals €92mln. The assistance directions within the budget-2007 (19mln euro) have been defined. Indicative program for 2007 includes three directions - tool for state budget sectorial support, twinning program and technical assistance. About 5mln euro will be allocated for twinning program to implement five projects, 14mln euro (10% for technical assistance to budget support instrument) for other two components.
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