Brussels, 10/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - During the visit of Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Brussels on Thursday 9 October, he and outgoing European Commission President José Manuel Barroso confirmed that negotiations had been concluded for a strengthened partnership and cooperation agreement (PCA) between the EU and Kazakhstan. The negotiations were completed in mid-September.
“This agreement will greatly facilitate stronger political, economic and strategic relations as well as the flow of trade, services and investment between Kazakhstan and the EU, and contribute to Kazakhstan's political, rule of law and economic reform, as well as modernisation and prosperity”, stated Barroso. The EU and Kazakhstan have been working on this strengthened PCA since mid-2010, and it is due to enter into force in 2015. It provides for a series of economic and political measures targeted at bringing the two parties closer together and stimulating reforms in Kazakhstan. The EU is already Kazakhstan's top trade partner and the first foreign investor in the country.
On Thursday, Barroso also expressed the EU's desire to use this new agreement to strengthen energy cooperation with Kazakhstan - a cooperation that already feeds 5-6% of the EU's demand for oil. “This new agreement includes a chapter on raw materials and energy with provisions that go beyond WTO and Energy Charter Treaty commitments”, he stated.
The strengthened PCA also aims to improve people to people contact. The EU's visa code, which has been in force since April 2010, already simplifies the issuing of short-stay visas for citizens of Kazakhstan visiting the EU. “And we are happy to advance our cooperation on migration issues within the framework of the new agreement”, Barroso stated.
On the sidelines of Thursday's ceremony, the EU and Kazakhstan concluded their bilateral negotiations on market access as part of Kazakhstan's WTO accession process. “This process is not over yet as Kazakhstan will have to continue negotiating with the other WTO partners but today the EU confirms that we have closed our bilateral issues with Kazakhstan and we are showing how supportive we remain of Kazakhstan's WTO accession. The PCA and Kazakhstan's WTO accession are part and parcel of the same logic of political and economic diversification and further integration of Kazakhstan in global affairs”, Barroso stated. After the break up of the USSR, Kazakhstan continued to have privileged links with Russia. Both countries signed an agreement in May, along with Belarus, for the creation of a Eurasian economic union, which is due to become operational on 1 January 2015. While deepening the customs union created in 2010 between these three countries, this agreement provides for the free movement of goods and services, capital and labour. (EH)