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Brussels to host second round of negotiations on Azerbaijan-EU Common Aviation Area agreement

28 January 2013 15:36 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementeva – APA. The European Commission officials from the Directorate-General for Transport and Mobility, the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Azerbaijan and the representatives of the EU Member States held the first round of the Common Aviation Area Agreement negotiations with the Azerbaijani State Aviation Administration and other ministries. The two sides agreed on the conclusion of an ambitious agreement, agreed on the general structure of the proposed agreement and agreed to meet again for a second round in Brussels mid-June before which the Azeri side will provide its comments on the first draft text of the agreement, Roland Kobia said commenting on the negotiations held in Baku on 24-25 January in his interview to APA.

The Ambassador noted that the wider Common Aviation Area which the EU is developing with neighboring countries would create a large single market in aviation services and would generate economic benefits and jobs for both Azerbaijan and the EU: “As far as the citizens are concerned, due to the gradual opening of the market, the number of destinations available by direct flights and choices for customers will increase, journey times will reduce, the connectivity will improve and more importantly as an effect the air fares are expected to drop”.

A study conducted by the European Commission estimates that an additional 860,000 passengers will fly between the EU and Azerbaijan alone during the first 5 years after the agreement is signed. “Furthermore, signing a Common Aviation Area agreement with the EU will mean for Azerbaijan a strengthened position, economy, developed trade and tourism relations. It is too early to say how long the negotiations will last. We have agreed to meet for a second round this June in Brussels and by then hopefully be able to finalize the negotiations. What we can take as a reference is the negotiations on the same subject with other countries: negotiations on an Aviation Agreement were concluded in about only 6 months with Moldova, and about a year with Georgia. So, if there is political will, it can be finalized very fast. It depends on Azerbaijan,” he said.