ONE DAY WE ALL WILL BECOME MEMBERS OF ONE EUROPEAN FAMILY, FRENCH DEPUTY OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CONVINCED
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 19 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 19, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The 8th annual
meeting of the European Union-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation
Commission started in Yerevan on April 18. The commission co-chairman,
Chairman of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee of Foreign
Relations Armen Rustamian expressed a hope that this meeting will
also proceed in “an atmosphere of serious and hot discussions and
debates”.”One can say confidently that since the last meeting in
Strasbourg, quite remarkable developments have taken place during
a year both in terms of deepening the Eurointegration processes
and taking yet another step in our relations with the EU,” he
noted. According to A. Rustamin, the interest that the Armenians take
in developing relations with the EU and in European developments is
increasing. “Democracy does not belong to us by right of succession,
and we have to struggle for these values, struggle together with our
friends so that these values will most completely and consistently
strike roots in Armenia,” Speaker of the RA National Assembly Artur
Baghdasarian stated in his welcoming speech. Considering the year
2006 important in terms of settling the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,
he said that “Armenia is making quite constructive efforts on this
path” and is pursuing the declared policy of solving the problem by
means of compromises. The commission co-chairwoman, French deputy
of the European parliament Marie Anne Isler Beguin noted that even
if public opinion of Europe as a whole does not yet perceive fully
the idea of cooperation under the European Neighborhood Policy,
“all members of our delegation are absolutely convinced that you
have European roots, and without indicating any date, I say that one
day we all become members of one European family.” In her words,
the commission members are well familiar with the problems facing
Armenia and are willing to assist with their solution. She pointed
out the Karabakh problem as the most important one, so the EU and the
European parliament are closely following the regional developments
and will pursue the goal of peaceful settlement of the Karabakh
conflict. “We don’t think that the Ramboillet meeting failed, just it
was not a summarizing, complete meeting,” Ms.Beguin underlined. At
the same time, she expressed a hope that an outline solution of
the conflict will be ready by the next meeting of the Armenian and
Azerbaijani Presidents, and it will be signed by the heads of both
states. According to her, EU representatives, especially ambassadors,
may play a great role in this issue.