EUROPEAN COMMISSION TRANSFERS 5 MILLION EURO ASSISTANCE TO ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
June 9, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 9, NOYAN TAPAN. The European Commission has disbursed
the first instalment of a 16 million package to fight unemployment,
especially among the young workforce, through reforms of the Vocational
Education and Training (VET) sector. The funds are part of the European
Commission’s 2007 Annual Action Programme for Armenia, endowed with
a total of 21 million assistance funds. The programme as a whole aims
at improving the VET institutions as well as the cooperation between
employment and education sectors, and at enhancing the business
climate for boosting job-creation.

This first transfer was made on June 5, 2008. Two further instalments
are foreseen until 2010.

In the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), Armenia
and the European Commission have agreed to focus assistance of the
European Union to Armenia allocated in 2007 on further reforms of
the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, building on
extensive experience and lessons learned from previous TACIS and
other EU funded projects. EU assistance to VET reforms in Armenia
for 2008 will be delivered through large scale Budget Support of 15
mln EUR, completed by a 1 mln EUR project of technical assistance,
i.e. 16 mln EUR in total.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the Armenian delegation of the European
Commossion, in the period 1992-2006 the European Commission has
provided more than 400 million euro in grants to Armenia through a
wide range of instruments, the most important ones being TACIS, ECHO,
Food Security Programme (FSP), European Initiative for Democracy and
Human Rights (EIDHR) and Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA).

More particularly, since 1999, the EU has spent over 25 mln EUR to
development of the Education sector in Armenia, through support to
VET reforms and TEMPUS programme.