OREANDA-NEWS. October 22, 2008. The Azerbaijan Republic Minister of Economic Development Heydar Babayev met Yanosh Herman, Deputy General Director for Public Relations and Head Consultant for Regional Cooperation of the European Commission.

H.Babayev said currently Azerbaijan cooperates closely with the European Union.

“Integration into European space is the priority of Azerbaijan foreign policy. In this direction special role is played by the events for our legislation conformity to European standards and WTO membership, which workgroup meeting will be held till the end of 2008,” H.Babayev said.

Yanosh Herman said the EU is interested in close cooperation with South Caucasus and Eastern Europe.

“In this connection the EU offered a new initiative – the Eastern Cooperation Programme. Its purpose is to increase attention paid to free trade, labor power movement, infrastructural development, environmental protection etc. The Programme is planned to be continued until 2013 and the EU is going to work out new mechanisms developing the initiative. We are going to collaborate closely with the Ministry for Economic Development to develop economic aspects of the initiative,” Yanosh Herman stated.

The Meeting also involved Head of the European Commission’s Azerbaijan Office Alan Waddams who underlined the significance of expansion of the cooperation under the Eastern Cooperation Programme and development of Azerbaijan-EU relations.