ARMENIA-EU ACTION PLAN IMPLEMENTATION PRIORITY FOR YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.05.2008 14:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan held
a meeting with the Heads of Missions of the European Union member
states accredited to Yerevan, and representatives of the delegation
of the European Commission.

President Sargsyan said that these meetings are a proper format for
the discussions of the issues on the Armenia-European Union agenda.

According to him, further deepening of the relations with the EU
will undeniably expedite Armenia’s democratic as well as economic
development.

Viewing the implementation of the Action Plan in the framework of
the New Neighborhood policy as a priority for Armenia, the President
stressed that the Plan is in full agreement with the program of
the Government of Armenia and the logic of the planned large-scale
reforms. President Sargsyan also mentioned that experience of the
European Commission is very important for Armenia. President of
Armenia said that he is satisfied with the results of the first year
of the Plan’s implementation as well as with the assessment presented
at the EC’s Progress Report. He noted that the assessment is overall
balanced and fair. He also said that Armenia is striving to join the
EU’s General System of Preferences (GSP) trade regime, to receive from
the EU the status of the country with market economy, and to sign
with the European Union a free trade agreement. With this regard,
the priority directions in the coming years will be the improvement
of the investment climate in the country, improvement of business
environment, and fundamental changes in the customs administration.

Speaking about political developments, Mr Sargsyan said that
regardless the post-election developments, the implementation of
democratic reforms remains a necessity, and that we will continue
working in that direction. He told those present that right after the
presidential elections he had offered cooperation to all political
forces and received a positive response from the majority of them,
what allowed the creation of the political coalition. He mentioned
with pain the impossibility of preventing the events of March 1.

Regardless of the fact that one of the candidates was speaking
about the events months before they actually took place, President
Sargsyan stressed that the authorities are responsible for all the
processes going on in the country and that they see the elimination
of their consequences in the unequivocal implementation of the
recommendations of the corresponding PACE resolution. In addition,
they entirely correspond to the principles laid out in the President’s
pre-election platform and to the principles of cooperation of the
Political Coalition.

"The recommendations of the working group have been approved by the
members of the Coalition, and we are determined to fully implement
them," he underscored.

President Sargsyan spoke also about the simplifying procedures for
obtaining the entry visas to the EU member states and the EU regional
center for cultural issues to be established in Yerevan.

On behalf of the diplomats the Ambassador of France, Serge Smessov
expressed satisfaction that the tradition of conducting these meetings
keeps up and noted that they are very useful for them.

The Ambassadors welcomed the determination of the Armenian authorities
to fully implement all recommendations of the PACE resolution.

The Armenian President also provided clarifications on other issues
raised by the diplomats.