EU-Azerbaijan: In the name of the mobility partnership

Support to the Implementation of the Mobility Partnership with Azerbaijan (MOBILAZE)

The EU-funded MOBILAZE project, implemented in the framework of the Mobility Partnership signed between the EU and Azerbaijan aims at providing a solid ground and real opportunities for direct exchange between countries – signatories of the Mobility Partnership in order to foster responsible migration management. Representatives of the Azerbaijani state institutions, the Delegation of the European Union and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) will gather on April 14, 2016 on the occasion of the kick-off of the EU-funded “Support to the Implementation of the Mobility Partnership with Azerbaijan (MOBILAZE)” project.

The objective of the MOBILAZE project is to support the implementation of the Mobility Partnership by strengthening the capacity of the government to develop and implement their national migration policy. The project also aims at improving the monitoring, analytical and forecasting capacities of the Government of Azerbaijan in the field of migration, to strengthening the capacities in the fields of labour migration, document security, and implementation of the national asylum policy and sustainable reintegration of returned Azerbaijani nationals.  Raising public awareness about mobility matters between the EU and Azerbaijan is another expected result of the project.

The Kick-off Coordination Meeting will gather representatives of the national implementing counterparts: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Migration Service, the State Border Service, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, the Ministry of Education and Baku State University. ICMPD project team and representatives of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan will also be present.

During the meeting, the initial findings of the project inception phase will be presented. Definition of needs, expertise and the customization of the technical assistance and capacity building activities will be discussed. The event will become a platform for the national partners to debate the future implementation and any other project-related and cooperation topics.

The Mobility Partnerships are the most elaborated cooperation between the EU and its partners instruments introduced within the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM) which since 2005 is the overarching framework of the EU external migration and asylum policy. Mobility Partnerships offer a platform for dialogue between partner countries on issues related to mobility, visa, asylum, return and integration. The Joint Declaration on a Mobility Partnership between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the EU and its participating Member States was signed in December 2013. The Joint Declaration established a set of political objectives and identified a number of areas in which further dialogue between the EU and Azerbaijan will continue in order to ensure that the movement of persons is managed as effectively as possible.