Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

Since Azerbaijan regained its independence of Azerbaijan, the European Union (EU) has been providing assistance ans support to Azerbaijan.

The European Union has implemented about 50 twinning projects in Azerbaijan within 10 years, Ulviya Abdullayeva, representative of the EU delegation in Azerbaijan, said in Baku on November 27.

“Some state agencies are showing more interest in implementation of twinning projects,” she said.

Abdullayeva added that the biggest twinning project is being implemented jointly with the Azerbaijani Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. She said that the EU is constantly monitoring the twinning projects.

In turn, EU resident twinning adviser Zinaida Gorina stressed that the twinning project "Strengthening the National Accreditation System of the Republic of Azerbaijan" is worth 1.2 million euros.

The project, the implementation of which began on July 1, 2017, is expected to last 24 months.

It should be noted that the project, which began in 2017, is expected to last until the middle of 2019. The goal of the project is to strengthen the capacity of the Azerbaijan Accreditation Center in compliance with the requirements of the International Labor Organization for Accreditation of the Laboratory, the International Accreditation Forum and the European Organization for Accreditation.

The European Union is the main foreign investor and trading partner of Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the European Union has provided about 600 million euros to Azerbaijan within the framework of Twinning, TAIEX, Budget Support Instruments. Azerbaijan takes the first place in the region on twinning projects.

Twinning programs are implemented in the context of the European Union's Eastern Partnership and Neighborhood Policy and intend to support the organizational structure process in line with European standards.

As many as 34 projects on Twinning have been successfully completed, 10 projects are in progress, one project is being prepared.

Share of EU countries in Azerbaijan's foreign trade made 42 percent in 2017 and 43.5 percent in the first eight months of 2018. There are more than 1,500 European companies in Azerbaijan. Over the past six years, European countries have invested about $ 16 billion in Azerbaijan's economy

Established in 1991 Azerbaijan-European Union relations based on the EU-Azerbaijan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed in 1996 covering many areas from trade to education.

In 2004, Azerbaijan joined the European Neighborhood Policy, and in the Eastern Partnership program of multilateral cooperation format in 2009 to raise relations to a higher level.

The energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union is especially noticeable that launched by Memorandum of Understanding in this field in 2006. EU supports the energy projects implemented in South Caucasus and interested in supplying Caspian hydrocarbon resources to Europe, as it comprehends diversification of the energy sources necessary to ensure Europe's energy security.

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