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.
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 European Union has gradually expanded the scope of its assistance and cooperation with Azerbaijan.
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 very many different areas besides twinning projects: in statistics, environment, social issues, safety, and constructing standards.
