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Press conference held on EU Progress Report on neighborhood policy

03 April 2013 13:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Shamil Alibeyli – APA. The European Union Delegation to Azerbaijan has held a press conference on the EU Progress Report on European Neighborhood Policy for 2012, APA reports. Informing about the report, head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Roland Kobia said that the report has been submitted by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and covers processes in the members states of the European Neighborhood Policy in 2012: “The report is not going to compare or judge the countries, it shows the countries, which achieved progress.”

Touching on Azerbaijan-related part of the report, the ambassador said that the EU and Azerbaijan held an active dialogue in 2012 and a number of visits took place: “The first aspect of Azerbaijan-related part of the report is related with the progress of the country. Azerbaijan’s macroeconomic indicators remained positive last year, implementation of the action plan on human rights was started, judicial reforms were continued, progress was achieved in the fight against money-laundering and human trafficking and a lot of work done towards the energy partnership. The second aspect is the one that needs to achieve more progress. It includes voluntary continuation of the reforms by Azerbaijan in democratic sphere, election process, human rights, protection of fundamental freedoms and independence of justice system. It also needs to achieve progress in anti-corruption, because it impedes economic diversification.”

Responding to APA’s question about the sources of the report, Kobia said that the reports are mainly based on two sources: “First, it is the information of the government and second the information of our delegation’s representatives. We hold meetings with officials, representatives of civil society, get information from media and make reports basing on this information.”