The visit of Azeri governmental delegation headed by Minister of Economic Development to Brussels for discussion of energy memorandum with the European Commission within National Action Plan under European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) is complete.
Mahmud Mamedkuliyev, Deputy Foreign Minister, told Trend in an exclusive interview this had been the first discussion of the document at such a high level. During the visit numerous consultations took place but the memorandum will be worked out further.
В"In our opinion, this document is much better than the previous one. Although, it is the first meeting so the work will go on. We stated our willingness to establish strategic partnership both in energy and humanitarian and economic spheres. We suggested the inclusion of a clause in the memorandum to say the parties would work to create the similar documents on strategic partnership in other spheres as wellВ", said official.
В"The regulatory tailoring in accordance with international and European standards is
one of WTO and the EU requirements. But we are not going to do that blindly, but with regard to the economic situation in the country. The regulatory tailoring is a long process and will take place steadily. We should perform a thorough and accurate work with account for economic state and realities of Azerbaijan, so experts should do thisВ", said Mamedkuliyev.
This document is a wide-scale convention and the EU is eager to collaborate with Azerbaijan not only as a transiting and producing country. It is also suggested to increase effectiveness in energy sphere, management, development of renewable sources of energy. In general, multilateral cooperation in all these fields is planned, Mamedkuliyev outlined.
He said the document would be signed after the final agreement on the memorandum. The next meeting date is not defined as it takes time to study the revised and amended memorandum with account for Azerbaijans proposals.
The delegation comprises of Minister of Economic Development Heydar Babayev, Minister of Industry and Energy Natik Aliyev, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mamedkuliyev, head of parliamentary commission for energy, ecology and natural resources Valekh Aleskerov and Executive Director of TACIS Asker Alekperov.