eu-com-schengen-coop

EUROPEAN UNION
DELEGATION TO Azerbaijan
Head of Delegation
27 May 2014/ Baku
LOCAL SCHENGEN COOPERATION (LSC)
IN AZERBAIJAN
2013-2014 REPORT 9
1. Introduction
The EU Delegation has taken the chairmanship of the LSC in Azerbaijan in July 2010 and has been
in charge of coordination of the group since then, organising meetings and providing support were
necessary in close communication with national authorities.
There are 17 diplomatic missions of EU member states accredited to Azerbaijan (Croatia and
Sweden joint the family in reporting period). Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Malta, Slovak
Republic, Slovenia, Spain have their diplomatic representations accredited outside of Azerbaijan.
From non-EU Schengen Countries Norway and Switzerland have diplomatic missions in Baku.
Spain has signed MoU for co-habitation on EU premises and will open mission in May 2014.
12 LSC member states are physically present and providing consular services in Azerbaijan:
Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway,
Poland, and Switzerland. In the reporting period the number of Schengen MS consular posts
remained the same. There are no LSC consular sections outside Baku.
The following Schengen countries are represented by other Member States as follows: Belgium
(represented by France), Denmark (represented by Norway), Estonia (represented by Latvia),
Finland (represented by Norway), Iceland (represented by Norway), Luxembourg (represented by
France), Malta (represented by Italy), Netherlands (represented by France), Portugal (represented by
France), Slovak Republic (represented by Latvia), Slovenia (represented by Latvia), Spain
(represented by France), Sweden (represented by Norway).
None of the LSC members are using currently external service providers. However, France finished
preparations for use of the third party outsourcing services (starting 26 of May, 2014) and Germany
considers to use external service providers (AZ-DE Chamber of Commerce will collect applications
from members of this institution – AZ entrepreneurs and top managers from private companies
registered in the Chamber).
LSC meetings are organised on a regular basis since September 2010. They are, as a rule, all held in
the premises of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Azerbaijan (EUD) and
occasionally held back to back with EU consular meetings.
During the reporting period, the negotiations on the Agreements on Visa facilitation and
readmission between EU and Azerbaijan were finalised in July 2013. Both Agreements were initialled
in July 2013. The EU-AZ Visa Facilitation Agreement was signed at 29/11/2013 on the side-lines
of EaP Summit in Vilnius. The EU-AZ Readmission Agreement was signed on 28/02/2014 in
Brussels. AZ approved the law 890-IVQ (03/02/2014) and internal procedures required for
ratification of the Visa Facilitation Agreement are done. AZ will do the same with the Readmission
9 April 2013-March 2014
12893/14 PR/lm 18
DG D 1 A
EN