COOPERATION BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND THE EUROPEAN UNION: PRESENT STATE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
Abstract
Relations between our republic and the European Union began to develop right after Azerbaijan officially announced its independence and the EU recognized this independence on 31 December,1991, that is, right after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. Prior to this, relations were largely maintained on the basis of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed between this European structure and the Soviet Union in 1989.
Between 1991 and 1999 several agreements were signed, including a bilateral Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed on 22 April 1996 in Luxemburg for a preliminary term of ten years. In October 1997, both sides entered an intermediate agreement that envisaged putting several articles of this document into effect early, before all the members of the European Union ratified it. And on 1 January,1999, this agreement finally came into force.
On the whole, until 1999 the EU’s policy regarding Azerbaijan was purely instructive, since in the beginning the Europeans tried to follow the Americans in the “big game.” The Paris Charter of the European Union (1990) called Azerbaijan, as part of the Caspian Region, a sphere of “general Europe-an interests,” but the EU still did not have enough courage to deal independently with our state. Nevertheless, our country received significant aid from it in the amount of 370,194,000 Euro between 1992-2002/31 (the largest amount of aid among all the post-Soviet countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia). We should note in particular the EU’s role in rendering technical aid under the TACIS program aimed at developing market reforms by providing consultation services, know-how, and passing on practical experience. Between 1991 and 2001, more than 150 projects were implemented in the republic, and between 1992 and 2001, the European Union spent a total of 370 million Euro on technical aid to our country.2
What is more, efficient aid is being rendered under the TACIS program in the transportation sphere.
or example, several documents were adopted at a conference held on 7 May 1993 in Belgium, including the Brussels Declaration and an agreement on introducing a technical assistance program financed by the EU. The TRACECA Program (the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transportation corridor) envisages reviving the ancient Great Silk Road and creating an East-West transportation corridor, which should bring the countries of the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia out of geostrategic isolation, as well as out from under Russia’s control.
Today, the TRACECA Program is financing 28 technical assistance studies (for 37 million Euro) and 10 investment projects on infrastructure rehabilitation (for 48 million Euro).3 The TACIS projects in Azerbaijan are related to reconstructing the Baku port, eliminating the weak link on the Georgian-Azerbaijan border, building a new and restoring the old Red Bridge, the arch of which was erected as early as the 12th century, as well as to resolving the transportation problems caused by the rise in level of the Caspian Sea.4
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References
See: Country Strategy Paper 2002-2006. National Indicative Program 2002-2003. Azerbaijan. Official document of European Commission, 2003.
See: Iu.A. Borko, “ES i vneshni mir. Otnosheniia s drugimi stranami SNG,” Evropeiski soiuz: fakty i komentarii, No. 28,March-May 2002.
Documents from the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry.
See: S.I. Cherniavskiy, Novy put Azerbaijana, Moscow, 2002, p. 280.
Documents of the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry.
See: The European Union Mine Actions in 2000-2002. Official Document of European Commission, 2000-2002.
See: M.V. Baba-zadeh, Azerbaijan-ES: napravlenia sotrudnichestva i vzaimodeistvia, Documents for the Scientific Conference Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of President Heydar Aliev, 25 April, 2003, p. 47.
Ibidem.
Ibidem.
Ibid., pp. 47-48.
See: Country Strategy Paper 2002—2006. National Indicative Program 2002—2003. Azerbaijan.
See: Ekho, No. 117 (362), 22 June, 2002.
See: RIA Novosti, 7 July, 2003.
See: Azerbaijanskie izvestia, No. 7 (07), 13 January, 2004.
See: Azerbaijanskie izvestia, No. 14 (14), 22 January, 2004.
Ibidem.
See: J.H Kalicki, “Caspian Energy at the Crossroads,” Foreign Affairs, September-October 2001.
Ibidem.
See: Azerbaijanskie izvestia, No. 9 (09), 15 January, 2004.
Ibidem.
See: V. Kotilko, “Rossiia i Kaspii: geopoliticheskie interesy,” Observer, No. 7 (126), 2000.
See: Ekho, No. 19 (511), 30 January, 2003.
See: Ekho, No. 6 (744), 13 January, 2004.
See: Azerbaijanskie izvestia, No. 12 (12), 20 January, 2004.
Ibidem.
See: Ekho, No. 15 (753), 27 January, 2004.
Ibidem.
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