European Union neighborhood policy: Azerbaijan case

Fifth enlargement wave created a significant dilemma about EU?s borders. In this dilemma first concern was if the enlargement damages functioning of the EU. The probability of weakening the reform processes in neighbouring states that will cause instability, if enlargement stops was the second concern. European Neighbourhood Policy was created as a response to this dilemma. A paper with the title of ?Wider Europe ? Neighbourhood: A New Framework for Relations with our Eastern and Southern Neighbours? which was presented by the President of the EU Commission Romano Prodi was the first step.ENP presents opportunities for many areas of economic cooperation, especially for entering EU internal market and offers ?everything but the institutions?. New Neighbourhood Policy really softened the borderline between ?insiders? and ?outsiders? and is a framework that gives EU an opportunity to have influence on the countries outside its borders without taking the responsibility of accession.The aim of this study is to investigate the contribution of the ENP to the EU ? Azerbaijan relations. For the EU the importance of the ENP is to challenge reforms without promising membership. At the same time the chance to get EU?s assistance to perform economic, politic, social, institutional reforms and to develop democracy and human rights bears great importance for Azerbaijan.The study examined in details the EU?s policies related to this region after the collapse of the Soviet Union and response of Azerbaijan to these policies, thus the conclusion was that ENP moved the EU ? Azerbaijan relations step forward.Key Words: Neighbourhood Policy, Azerbaijan, Karabagh, Integration, Internal Market.