On 22 January, the EU ambassador to Azerbaijan Kestutis Jankauskas spoke on the current state of affairs between Azerbaijan and the EU, reported apa.az. He stated that the two parties were at the final stage of negotiations and that he hopes the partnership agreement would be signed as soon as possible. “After signing of this agreement, the relations between Azerbaijan and the EU will pass [into] a new phase,” he said.
Janauskas also spoke briefly about the open fields of the negotiations, as well as praising certain internal dynamics in Azerbaijan for speeding up the process, most notably the appointment of the new Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov (Caucasus Watch reported). “A number of not agreed issues on the partnership agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU are related to trade and economy,” he said. “The appointment of the new economy minister is very important for [the] signing of the agreement. We have conducted discussions regarding how we will hold negotiations with the new minister for [the] signing of the new agreement. In December of last year, the next phase of dialogue on security between Azerbaijan and the European Union was held in Baku. During those meetings, the discussions were conducted regarding how further negotiations between Azerbaijan and the EU would be held. Although no specific date of signing has been appointed, both parties are making efforts for finalization of the negotiations and signing of the agreement as soon as possible,” he concluded.
On the same day, the Head of the Department for Foreign Policy Affairs of Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev also expressed his optimism over the signing of the new Azerbaijan-EU deal. “Azerbaijan[‘s] relations with the European Union (EU) is one of the important directions of Azerbaijan's foreign policy,” he said. “And still the negotiation process is going on between EU and Azerbaijan and there are certain fundamental areas we have a lot of different views but… with constructive engagement [both sides are] working together to narrow this gap. Almost 90 per cent of the… agreement[‘s text] is finalized but there are energy… and… trade issues [that we want the EU side to agree] that they should not take [a] preferential position [on]. [I]n another [words], [an] offensive trade approach with regard to the agreement and based on that understanding we do believe that we can move… forward because… [it] is also strategically important that we have own internal reform process and own economic priorities and initiatives… [T]he agreement should be designed [to] meet the requirement[s] of both sides and the meantime it should be [a] mutually beneficial approach,“ he added.
On 23 December 2019, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that the two biggest points where Azerbaijan’s and the EU's positions diverge were Azerbaijan’s ascension into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and energy prices (Caucasus Watch reported). On 10 August 2019, several media outlets reported that the new Azerbaijan-EU deal was at risk of total collapse due to a stall in negotiations (Caucasus Watch reported).
