Wolfgang Sporrer: "The Action Plan to be signed between EU and Azerbaijan is a document containing political commitments"

In the beginning of EU-Azerbaijan cooperation, when Azerbaijan went through economically very difficult times, aid was focused on humanitarian issues, food security and infrastructure. Later, when Azerbaijan's economy was in better shape, the focus shifted to technical assistance, that is, to the transfer of knowledge from Europe to Azerbaijan, with the aim of professionalizing selected Azerbaijani institutions. This was the main goal of the TACIS programme, under which alone the EU has spent nearly 125 million Euros, Wolfgang Sporrer, Coordinator of the Europa House in Azerbaijan told the APA.

"Now, with the inclusion of Azerbaijan in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), again cooperation must take on a new shape. The new instrument created in order to achieve this aim is called European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). Its main goal is to help Azerbaijan to approximate to European standards in certain areas, which have been jointly determined by the EU and by the Azerbaijani government. So: even though the TACIS programme will end with the last programme of 2006, cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU will continue, and will grow and become more ambitious," the Coordinator noted.

Mr. Sporrer said the new cooperation mechanism ENPI should be more flexible than the TACIS programme.

"Under the new instrument ENPI, cooperation will take a greater variety of forms and shapes than possible up to now. Besides the classical 'Technical Assistance', that was the main focus of TACIS, ENPI will, for example, have the possibility for 'Twinning', that is the exchange of civil servants from Member States of the EU with civil servants from Azerbaijan. Also other possibilities, such as the direct support to some sectoral policies of the government, become possible under this new instrument."

The Europa House Coordinator said as coming to which things are going to be done concretely in the framework of ENPI, is currently a matter of negotiation between the European Commission and the government of Azerbaijan, "All things that are being done or will be done under TACIS or ENPI are the result of a full negotiated agreement between the EU and the Azerbaijani government."

He also aid TACIS funds have always been allocated according to two criteria: the needs and the size of the country. It is therefore logical that more money has been allocated in the past to much larger countries than Azerbaijan, such as the Ukraine or the Russian Federation.

Mr.Sporrer also touched on the European Commission drafts 'Country Strategy Paper.' "Maybe it is worthwhile explaining the mechanism, in which such priorities for cooperation are determined: first, the European Commission drafts a so-called 'Country Strategy Paper,' in which it determines, for itself, what are the main goals of cooperation and the very broad direction in which cooperation should be going. Based on this, the Commission and the government of Azerbaijan sit down together and determine main priority areas, in which aid and cooperation are envisaged. This has happened in July of this year, when a delegation of the EC travelled to Baku and had a big meeting with most Azerbaijani ministries, where they put on the table what they want and expect from the EU in terms of aid. On the basis of these discussions, a so-called 'Indicative Programme' is drawn up, which needs to be agreed with the Azerbaijani government. This document fixes certain policy areas (for example: customs, tax administration, or the judiciary), in which aid will be carried out in the next years. This document covers the period 2007-2010 and is currently in the process of finalisation."

The Coordinator said the Action Plan is a political document in the framework of the implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). This Action Plan has nothing to do with aid, but is a document containing political commitments both from the side of the EU and from Azerbaijan, and, as a 'political document,' provides the basis for aid planning.

"The above-mentioned commitments, for example reforms in the field of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, or also reforms in the field of customs or in he field of energy, have as their main goal an approximation of Azerbaijan to European standards. This approximation should serve the purpose of bringing EU and Azerbaijan closer together, to making Azerbaijan and the EU adhere to the same standards and therefore deepening their strategic partnership," he concluded.