Integration into European institutions meets Azerbaijan's national interests: expert

Baku/05.06.18/Turan: Integration into European institutions is important from the point of view of Azerbaijan's national interests, the expert on international management Ahmed Alili said in an interview with Cətin Sual ("Difficult question").

"In a region where such big players as Russia, Iran, Turkey, the policy of integration into the European Union is very important for maintaining the balance," Alili said. According to him, the process of integration into the EU has never stopped. Simply after the Riga summit of the "Eastern Partnership" in 2015, the countries participating in this program have come close to the EU at various rates. Clear leaders are Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. The other three countries - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus are less active.

"Of course, I would like more accelerated integration into European structures, which meets the national interests of Azerbaijan," the expert continued. Asked what impedes the development of political and economic ties with the EU, Alili responded:

"Judicial reforms are a decisive factor in terms of attracting European investors to Azerbaijan. They want to see a judicial system that would be credible and would be able to protect them," Alili said.

If it will be possible to attract European investors, this will be followed by the import of technologies. This will allow local producers to create competitive products and export it to the EU. If this does not happen, Azerbaijan will remain only a supplier of energy resources.

The Azerbaijani authorities are trying to reduce relations with the EU to the level of government relations. At the same time, Alili considers it necessary to restart relations of Azerbaijan with the European Parliament and the parliaments of individual countries, from the roster of which official Baku is often criticized.

Azerbaijan also does not correctly assess the importance and role of international NGOs.

Working with international NGOs, individual interest groups in Europe is important for the formation of a positive image of the country. Proper work with NGOs can play an important role in lobbying interests and forming a positive image of Azerbaijan in the European Parliament and in parliaments of individual EU countries.

The expert believes that Azerbaijan should tolerate criticism by the European Parliament of human rights problems. For in Europe, representatives of old democracies criticize problems in the EU states themselves, such as Poland and Hungary. Alili believes that there are indeed groups in the European Parliament and EU structures that are not at all friendly to Azerbaijan. However, Azerbaijan's sharp negative reaction to criticism is only in favor of these forces.

Azerbaijan should take care of its reputation, avoid problems with media freedom, and freedom of assembly.

As for the processes around the civil society of Azerbaijan, at the root of these problems is mutual distrust between the Azerbaijani government and international donors. The Azerbaijani government accuses donors of trying to repeat the processes that took place in Ukraine and Georgia. In the end, this led to an undesirable state of civil society, arrests of activists.

"We must try to avoid reputational losses in this area. For we in Azerbaijan do not attach importance to these losses. However, for European structures they represent they are significant," Alili noted. -06D--