RESETTING OF EASTERN PARTNERSHIP

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso last week visited Azerbaijan. His statements in Baku showed that, despite a number of serious international problems in the EU area of responsibility and internal squabbles in the organization, Brussels continues to have the most serious designs on prospects of relations with Azerbaijan.

The material, if I may say so, fruit of the visit was the signing of a protocol to the agreement on partnership and cooperation between Baku and the European Union, which will make it possible to expand the participation of the republic in various new European programmes.

In the subsequent joint statement for the press, the presidents of Azerbaijan and the European Commission let it be known that Baku and Brussels agreed to develop a new format of cooperation that meets mutual interests and takes into account the changing situation in the world.

First of all, of course, we are talking about energy, meaning the energy crisis experienced by Europe, aggravated by the continuing disagreement between Russia on the one hand and the EU and Ukraine on the other over the price of Russian gas. Aliyev and Barroso recalled how they signed an historic declaration on energy cooperation regarding the Southern Gas Corridor project during the first visit to Baku by the president of the European Commission. The successful implementation of the provisions of this document has already begun: in 2012, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed the agreement on the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), a year later, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP) was selected, and finally, the final investment decision on Shah Deniz-2 [Sah Daniz] was adopted at the end of the same year. All these projects, designed to supply Azerbaijani gas to European markets, are the largest infrastructure projects in Europe today and cost at least 45bn dollars. The energy security interests of Azerbaijan and the EU in these projects are mutual - Baku is interested in diversifying energy supply routes and Europe - in diversifying the sources.

Barroso said that the European Union will do its utmost for the successful development of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is an integral part of the EU energy security strategy submitted to the council by the European Commission. Incidentally, this strategy will be submitted to the council for discussion very soon - on 27 June.

"We also raised the issue of accelerating and expanding the Southern Gas Corridor project and agreed that in the coming years, this issue will be our shared priority. I mean the discussion of additional opportunities associated with the development of this project," the president of the European Commission admitted.

By the way, after the talks, Barroso and Aliyev visited the Sanqacal terminal - the starting point of gas from Shah Deniz, which will be delivered to European customers.

At the same time, the parties stated that although energy is the strategic direction of bilateral cooperation, Baku and Brussels have no intention of confining themselves to one area. In particular, Azerbaijan, the European Union and its individual countries are major trading partners. According to Aliyev, 80 per cent of Azerbaijan's export falls to the EU, and Barroso, for his part, cited no less impressive figures: last year the volume of trade between the EU and Azerbaijan reached 17.9bn euros. And practical work is under way to expand trade and economic relations. Practical steps in this direction have already been taken: Azerbaijan and European manufacturers recently signed various important agreements worth several billion dollars covering energy and non-energy sectors.

Ties in the humanitarian sphere are expanding. In this regard, Barroso stressed the importance of signing the agreement already mentioned above, which will promote cooperation in areas such as science, education, the environment and policies of consumption and health.

Ilham Aliyev expressed the hope that in the coming months, the parties will be actively working on the new format of cooperation. "Azerbaijan wants to be as close as possible to the European Union. For us it is a matter of strategic importance," he stressed.

A similar statement regarding the desire to expand cooperation was made by the European Commission president, and here, he said perhaps the most important words. Barroso said that, striving to expand relations with Azerbaijan, the European Union keeps the invitation to associative membership in force. "At the same time, we understand and openly discussed the fact that we should not seek to use a single model with regard to all states within the framework of Eastern Partnership," he stressed.

As can be seen, on the example of Ukraine Brussels realized the dramatic consequences of dragging Eastern Partnership countries into the European Union without considering the specifics of these countries and their geopolitical environment. Azerbaijan made it clear from the very beginning that in order to develop strategic partnership with the EU, the eastern neighbours of Europe do not necessarily need to become hostages to the geopolitical struggle between Brussels and Russia, which is very jealous of such attempts by the West to invade its traditional zone of interests - the post-Soviet area.

Azerbaijan expressed its decision to reject associate membership in the EU a long time ago, and this position has not changed. However, other proposals from the European partners that do not have a political agenda are acceptable. For this reason, during the talks in Baku, the sides unanimously agreed on the need to accelerate work on the bilateral document on partnership in strategic modernization. Barroso expressed the hope that these negotiations will be concluded in the coming months, and President Aliyev will arrive in Brussels to sign this document.

Although in a statement for the press the head of the European Commission only mentioned in passing that in the negotiations with President Aliyev, he discussed the situation in Ukraine, the context of the visit to Azerbaijan by one of the EU leaders is obvious. Brussels cannot help but notice the consequences of their poorly-thought out strategy of expansion in the post-Soviet area, in which politics significantly prevailed over the economy - the crisis or rather the bloody civil war in Ukraine, which exacerbated problems of gas supply to Europe even more, the sharp deterioration in relations between the West and Russia and as a consequence of all this - the declining role of the EU in the post-Soviet area and vice-versa, the strengthening of the leading role of Moscow in the process of consolidation in the region (EAEU). Brussels surely now realizes that its eastern partners are unlikely to want to pay the price for rapprochement with Europe, which Ukraine has paid and continues to pay. And, as shown by Barroso's visit to Baku, the EU decided to fundamentally change its tactics of behaviour in relation to its eastern neighbours and primarily Azerbaijan. The motto of this new approach is nothing personal, only business. This is what Azerbaijan has been talking about since the very beginning.