EU prepares “neighbourhood report” on Azerbaijan

Trend news agency
22 Dec 04

Baku, 22 December: The European Commission has worked out a
“neighborhood report” on Azerbaijan, the EU special representative
in the South Caucasus, Heikki Talvitie, has said in an exclusive
interview with Trend news agency.

The European Commission called for the inclusion of Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Georgia in the European Neighbourhood Policy programme
on 12 May 2004, Talvitie said.

“Initially, this idea has to be approved by 25 members of the European
Union. At this stage, negotiations between the EU and Azerbaijan
will be conducted in this direction,” he said.

The neighborhood report reflected not only a political discussion, but
also [the discussion] of economic and social problems of Azerbaijan,
democracy and human rights, he said. “Europe wants its would-be
neighbors to be committed to the principles of democracy, the rule
of law and market economy,” Talvitie said.

Speaking about the conditions for joining the programme, Talvitie
said that the main objective is to develop democracy, protect human
rights, boost economic potential and so on. “Azerbaijan is already
one of the European countries and we attach major significance
to the stable development within the process of integration,” the
diplomat said. Appropriate documents on the programme have already
been submitted to the Baku government, in connection with which
Talvitie is planning his next visits.