ARMENIA UNDER NO DANGER
G. Harutyunyan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 09, 2008
Armenia
The Presidency of the EU Council has been shifted to France from July
1 up to the end of the year.
During the coming six months the French Presidency is planning to
reform Europe’s energy policy, to contribute to the maintenance of the
environment and assist the struggle against the climate change. French
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Serge Smesov
and Head of the delegation of the European Committee in Armenia Raul
de Lucenberger yesterday represented three more priorities of the
French presidency.
They particularly underscored that 27 EU member countries are already
elaborating a common immigration policy. In this framework France will
mostly pursue the goal of averting illegal immigration. The issue of
Europe’s security and defense is one of the priorities.
Taking into consideration the increase of food prices in the whole
world French Presidency attaches great importance to the elaboration
of a common agricultural policy.
Serge Smesov particularly mentioned that France considers it important
to establish a free regional trade zone with the new European neighbors
and provide conditions for free movement, for the citizens of those
countries.
Though the ambassador mentioned lots of reasons why he avoided
answering the questions regarding our country’s internal-political
situation, he had to. He said the requirements of resolution 1609
and 1620 wouldn’t have any impact on the process of the program
"New neighbors".
‘We don’t have any intention to clarify Armenia’s internal political
estimations. Council of Europe came to a decision that in any case they
won’t use any sanctions against Armenia, at least up to 2009. The
program "New neighbors" is EU program and Council of Europe has
submitted the resolution to Armenia.
We can simply hope that the requirements of the resolution will
become an agenda issue for Armenia. Our program is built on the common
value system.
The cooperation between Armenia and the European Union is conditioned
by those factors."
Raul de Lucenberger informed us that the European Union has signed a
plan of actions with Armenia in the framework of the program "New
neighbors" and previewed the activity of the coming years. "The
progress of the relations between Armenia and the European Union is
conditioned by the speed and effectiveness of the jointly elaborated
action plan. And "New neighbors" program is under no danger".