Assessment of the prospects for the development of mutual interests of economic integration between Azerbaijan and the European Union

The article examines the existing economic relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan and the prospects for their future development. The fact that the EU is an important export market for Azerbaijan calls for increased efforts to reduce the current trade restrictions applied by the EU. In this regard, the idea of creating a free trade zone has been put forward, which provides for the prospect of economic integration, gradually turning into political one. It is believed that the implementation of such an idea will stimulate the transformation and modernization of the national economy, the gradual introduction of European standards, improvement of the quality of local products and competitiveness, as well as help the country integrate into the EEA, and then focus on meeting the criteria for EU membership. It should be noted that the idea of creating a free trade zone is primarily supported by large business structures interested in expanding access to EU markets, removing non-tariff restrictions in trade with the West, primarily on the export of agricultural products to EU markets.