Bulgarian Vice President Margarita Popova has said the European Union should draw upon Azerbaijan's experience in anti-corruption.

In an interview with the Trend.az website, Popova has argued Brussels should "cooperate in this sphere with Azerbaijan not through instruction, but on an equal footing.

Popova has added that Sofia and Baku should work "in the name of peace on Earth".

Congratulating President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva on the efforts to turn their country into "an independent, stable and economically successful [one]," she has added that the two respective states need not limit their cooperation to energy and economics, but also to the humanitarian sphere, culture and tourism.

Bulgaria is also interested in developing relations in judicial affairs, she has noted.

In Popova's words, there already is cooperation on a bilateral basis within the International Anti-Corruption Academy.

"No Western or Eastern country can call another country corrupt or non-corrupt. Corruption surmounts borders, it is a trans-national, international affair. It is a vice of the present-day global world."