The European Commission (EC) has defined a preliminary 2007 budget for Azerbaijan under the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP). The Executive Director of Coordinating Bureau of EUs Technical Assistance Program (Tacis), Asgar Alakparov, told Trend that 22-23m euros have been allocated for the country.
The European Commission intends to carry out financing within the framework of two programs Tacis and MEDA. The budget of ENP for 2007-2013 is designed in the amount of 15bn euros, which twice the financing for 2000-2006. The funds will be distributed among the countries. Along with technical assistance the EC is also ready to offer new instruments of financing, including training instrument.
By the end of the year it is planned to adopt a national action plan under the ENP, after which indicative program designed for 2-3 years with 5 actions programs for each year will be approved.
The priority directions of the action plan for Azerbaijan have been defined. These are strengthening of democracy in the country, improvement of the business and investment climate, support to durable economic development, coordination of legislation in the economic sphere and experience of management, strengthening of cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan, etc.