FROM PARTNERS TO NEIGHBOURS

Something happened on 14 November 2006 that went unnoticed by the Azerbaijani public but is quite significant for the development of our country's domestic and foreign policy. Azerbaijan and the European Union adopted an Action Plan as part of the European Neighbourhood Policy, at a sitting of the Council for Cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan. In order to assess the position and role of this document in current EU strategy and in our country's politics it is worth recalling the circumstances in which the idea itself of a "European neighbourhood" was born. 

The European Neighbourhood concept was worked out in the European Commission in 2003-04 and was aimed at avoiding new dividing lines in Europe after EU enlargement. In May 2004 the biggest enlargement occurred in the EU's history - the European family was joined by a large group of Eastern European and Baltic novices and Cyprus and Malta as well. As a result the EU grew from 15 to 25 countries and its territory increased by a quarter. It was at this time that the strategic report on the European Neighbourhood Policy appeared which set the directions and principles of the already enlarged EU's interaction with its new neighbours. They included the EU's direct neighbours with land or sea borders for whom there were no plans for acceptance. They are Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova in the east, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and the Palestinian Autonomy in the south. Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia were included later as neighbours who at that time did not have common borders with the EU, but represented undoubted strategic interest for it (the Balkan countries had been promised future membership).

As well as the EU's geographic enlargement and its expansion to new regional borders, there was another factor behind the new concept: the clear ineffectiveness of previous mechanisms of interaction between the EU and non-member states that were set out in individual Partnership and Cooperation Agreements.

It should be noted that the concept has an indisputable geopolitical dimension. It is aimed at creating a kind of buffer zone along the EU's eastern and southern borders (the EU's documents call it a "zone of stability, security and welfare") or a cordon sanitaire. It is meant to defend enlarged, prosperous Europe from crisis trends and phenomena arising from the post-Soviet and Middle Eastern areas. The ideology of the European Neighbourhood Policy would appear here to pursue the aim of tying in the neighbours' evident desire for Euro-integration with the fulfilment of a specific set of demands and conditions in the area of political, economic and institutional reforms, adaptation of national legislation and, overall, acceptance of the common European rules of the game. In other words the European Neighbourhood Policy is an attempt at systemically achieving the objectives of ensuring the EU's economic security and expanding its geopolitical influence to strategically important regions of the former USSR and Middle East in conditions of growing competition for influence in these regions.

However, Brussels' offer of "experimental" partner status did not suit all its neighbours. Membership of a group of "eternal candidates" with little influence was unacceptable for Russia, along with what it saw as the paternalistic contents of the neighbourhood concept. Moscow initiated a negotiating process and agreed a new format for bilateral cooperation with Brussels. At the Russia-EU summit in May so-called "road maps" were confirmed, intended to specify the priorities for bilateral cooperation on the basis of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the Russian Federation and the EU. Relations with Russia are described at present as "strategic partnership through the creation of four common areas" (economic, humanitarian, freedom of movement and in the security sphere).

The central element and mechanism for implementing the European Neighbourhood Policy were the individual action plans between the EU and each of its partner-neighbours (these plans have been concluded with all of the aforementioned countries with the exception of Syria, Libya and Belarus). They were adapted to the individual specifics and opportunities of each country and, correspondingly, to the EU's interests in relation to each country. The programmes encompass jointly agreed areas for cooperation. To be more exact, assistance from the EU in conducting reforms in such areas as political, social and economic development, trade and investment, ecology, science and education, health care, the creation of an information society, humanitarian contacts etc. Elements on cooperation in conflict resolution were included in the Action Plans with a number of countries - Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In response to progress in reforms specified in the Action Plan, Brussels is promising to open its doors more widely (economic, markets, aid programmes) to the relevant neighbour. In other words, the logic inherent in these plans can be summed up in the formula: "Your prospects for Euro-integration depend on you effectively carrying out the reforms that we have recommended." The Action Plan for Azerbaijan says in this regard: "The level of our relations will depend on the degree of Azerbaijan's commitment to common values and its capacity to implement jointly agreed priorities."

To be more specific, the Action Plan for Azerbaijan aims at substantial intensification of mutual cooperation between our country and the European Union in such priority areas as: 

1.support for a peaceful resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagornyy-Karabakh

2.strengthening democracy, the protection of human rights and basic human freedoms

3.improving the business and investment climate in the country, particularly by strengthening the fight against corruption

4.improving the functioning of the customs service

5.balanced and sustainable economic development

6.diversification of economic activities, development of rural areas, poverty reduction and protection of the environment

7.convergence of national legislation and administrative practices with European standards

8.strengthening energy cooperation

9.strengthening cooperation in the field of border management, migration and combating organized crime

10.strengthening regional cooperation

Alongside the priority areas the plan also contains a detailed description of common goals which envisage cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU in more than 40 fields. To coordinate national efforts to implement the Action Plan the Azerbaijani president signed on 1 June 2005 a decree on the creation of an Azerbaijani Republic State Commission for Euro-Integration which included almost all ministers and heads of department. As part of the commission seven working groups were set up on the main areas of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was made the coordinating body for this cooperation and interaction.

The Action Plan is to be implemented over a five-year period and is of indisputable strategic significance for Azerbaijan in terms of speeding up and expanding our European integration, reinforcing the European vector in our foreign policy and strengthening our European and, consequently, international positions. It should be noted that the Action Plan opens the possibility not only of invigorating relations with the European Union as a whole, but also of significantly deepening Azerbaijan's bilateral cooperation with each of the 27 EU member states.

It seems to us that the advantages and benefits of the plan are that it can open the prospects of wider and deeper European integration for Azerbaijan (or not - it all depends on our side's ambition and specific steps). If the government takes an interest in the project and is ready to carry out the reforms and recommendations specified in the Action Plan, its internal effect will probably be far greater than its effect on foreign policy. Therefore, we (the authorities and society) should see the conduct of deep reforms in the aforementioned spheres not only as a prerequisite for Azerbaijan's integration into the European economic, legal and humanitarian area, but also as an independent priority for state-building, on which the stable, safe and prosperous development of Azerbaijani society depends.