The Committee unanimously adopted the report by Mr Schwaiger, thereby recommending that Parliament give its assent to the interim agreement between the EU and the Republic of Azerbaijan on trade and trade-related matters. On 22nd April 1996 the EC and Azerbaijan signed a partnership and cooperation agreement to which the European Parliament gave its assent on 13th March 1997. As the partnership agreement falls within the province of both the European Union and the Member States, and as national ratification procedures are relatively protracted, the Commission has negotiated an interim agreement on trade and trade-related measures which brings into force that part of the partnership agreement which falls within the exclusive competence of the Union.
The interim agreement basically encapsulates certain provisions of the partnership and cooperation agreement:
-the general principles, and in particular the democracy clause,
-provisions relating to trade in goods,
-payments, competition and other economic provisions,
-various institutional, general and final provisions,
In addition, the interim agreement provides for:
-the implementation of customs cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan on the basis of a protocol annexed to the agreement,
-an indicative list of advantages granted by the Republic of Azerbaijan to the independent states of the former USSR,
-a list of the intellectual, industrial and commercial property conventions with which Azerbaijan will have to comply by the end of the fifth year after the entry into force of the agreement, and a unilateral declaration by the Republic of Azerbaijan concerning the protection of intellectual, industrial and commercial property rights.�