Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan is the leader among the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries in terms of number of implemented twinning projects, Head of EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Kestutis Jankauskas said on November 20.

He made the remarks at an official opening ceremony of the twinning project “Strengthening the Institutional and Administrative Capacity of the Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan.”

Jankauskas said that 46 twinning projects have been implemented in Azerbaijan since the beginning of holding such initiatives in the country. He added that currently 13 twining projects are being implemented in Azerbaijan, and eight more projects are under preparation.

He also stressed that the EU will continue to support Azerbaijan in improving the management of public finances and application of international audit standards.

“Currently Azerbaijan is carrying out large-scale reforms and is ready to use various international experience for this. The EU is actively cooperating with Azerbaijan in this matter and is ready to continue successful cooperation,” Jankauskas said.

Vugar Gulmammadov, chairman of Azerbaijan’s Chamber of Accounts, in turn, said that the EU will allocate 1.4 billion euros for strengthening of institutional and functional capabilities of the Chamber.

He said this was envisioned under a twinning project realized jointly with supreme audit bodies of Croatia, Slovenia and Poland. The project, implemented by Poland’s Central Audit Department (NIK), was launched on October 1and will take 27 months to complete, ending in December 2019.

Gulmammadov added that the project envisages achievement of the main goals, among which are the development of human resources management and the functional capabilities of the Chamber with the aim of increasing the usefulness and effectiveness of staff, increasing the capabilities of the Chamber in financial audit as well as submission of audit reports in accordance with international standards and national legislation. The main goals also include increasing the capabilities of the Chamber in improving contacts with parliament and press.

Twinning projects have very strong and good results in the strengthening cooperation in different areas. At least a thousand of European Union’s expats have been working in Azerbaijan in twinning projects of different capacity during the last five years.

Azerbaijan and the EU also have a very strong base of cooperation on many different areas besides twinning projects: in statistics, environment, social issues, safety, and constructing standards.

The bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of a partnership and cooperation agreement, which was signed in 1996 and came into force in 1999. The agreement provides for wide-range cooperation in the areas of political dialogue trade, investment, in economic matters, legislation and culture. Since then, the EU has gradually expanded the scope of its assistance and cooperation with Azerbaijan.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz