The European Union and Council of Europe joint programme on Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) 2019-2022 held the third Steering Committee meeting for Azerbaijan on Friday 25 February in online format. The aim of the meeting was to present the state of implementation and the results of the programme and discuss plans for 2022.

During the meeting, participants assessed the impact of the work carried out by the PGG projects during 2021 in the fields of judiciary, combating corruption and discrimination.

The programme is implementing three country-specific projects in Azerbaijan for the period 2019-2022, with a total budget of around 2 million euros. These projects assist the country’s authorities to counter corruption and money laundering, strengthen the efficiency and quality of the judicial system and to raise awareness of the Istanbul Convention and Gender Equality Standards.

In addition to the country-specific projects, Azerbaijan is taking part in regional PGG projects aimed at preventing and combating economic crime, facilitating the access of women to justice as well as strengthening the access to justice through non-judiciary redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech, strengthening the professions of lawyers, with a total budget of around 3,7 million euros.

The European Union provides 80% of the funding of the projects, whilst the Council of Europe provides 20% of the funding and is in charge of their implementation.

Ambassador Peter Michalko, Head of the European Union Delegation to Azerbaijan, Delphine Freymann, Head of the Programming Department a.i., Office of the Directorate General of Programmes, Council of Europe, and Leyla Hasanova, Chief of Division, Department of Cooperation with Human Rights Institutions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, PGG National Coordinator opened the meeting.

 Partnership for Good Governance II (2019-2022) projects in Azerbaijan

 Partnership for Good Governance II (2019-2022) regional projects