New EU-Azerbaijan partnership agreement to be ready next year

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

The new comprehensive partnership agreement between the European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan is expected to be ready for signing in the first half of 2019, according to Javanshir Feyziyev, co-chair of the EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC).

“The negotiators on the new comprehensive agreement between the EU and Azerbaijan are present in each PCC meeting to inform us about the current situation on talks,” he said in an interview with EurActiv.

The co-chair added that the new agreement is supposed to cover all political, economic, social and cultural sides of the EU-Azerbaijan relations, including trade and investment, human rights and rule of law, education, environment and other sectoral cooperation, including in energy and transport.

“There is no time restriction, but the negotiators are really making all their efforts to accelerate the process. We believe the governments will be able to finalize talks by the end of this year and a new agreement to be ready for signing in the first half of 2019,” Feyziyev said.

In November 2016, 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.

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. The agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European Neighborhood Policy and will offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan.

In the interview, Feyziyev also noted that as the biggest political power of the continent, the EU must be able to contribute to a peaceful solution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Azerbaijan expects from the EU a transparent, fair and honest approach toward the situation and contribution to a solution of the conflict in accordance with international norms and principles, within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” the PCC co-chair said.

He also emphasized that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict keeps the entire region from development.

The conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijan’s territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.