ARMENIA-EU CONSULTATIONS IN BRUSSELS

armradio.am
12.02.2009 17:03

Armenia-EU consultations on the level of the "troika" of the Political
and Security Committee of the Council of Europe were held in Brussels
on February 12.

The Armenian delegation was led by the Head of the Armenian
Representation at the European Union, Ambassador Vigen Chetichyan. The
European delegation was headed by representative of the EU
Presidency, Czech Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee
I. Shramek. The consultations featured representatives of the EU
Czech Presidency, the Secretariat of the EU Council, the European
Commission and Sweden, the next EU chair-country, as well as EU
Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semenby.

During the consultations the parties discussed issues related to the
political cooperation between Armenia and the European Union. Attaching
importance to the steps taken by the Armenian authorities in the
direction of improving the domestic political situation in the country,
the European side expressed willingness to continue the support to
Armenia in the implementation of reforms. The group of EU advisers
to be sent to Armenia in the near future and the establishment of
the sub-committee on issues of judicial cooperation will contribute
to raising the effectiveness of the work. The signing of the free
trade agreement between the parties will contribute to the deepening
of economic cooperation.

It was noted that EU’s financial assistance to Armenia will
considerably rise in the near future.

Special reference was made to the Nagorno Karabakh issue and the
normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. Excluding the military
solution of the issue, the European Union reconfirmed its support to
the continuation of the talks within the framework of the OSCE Minsk
Group on the basis of the Madrid Proposals. The parties welcomed the
adoption of the Moscow Declaration, which has given new dynamics to
the settlement process.

The European side also welcomed the steps of the Armenian authorities
in the direction of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations
and expressed hope that real progress will be registered in that
direction in the near future.

The European Commission presented the current state of discussions on
the Eastern Partnership initiative. In this context importance was
attached to multilateral regional cooperation, due to which it will
be possible to exclude the implementation of infrastructure programs
because of political reasons. Such cooperation will contribute to the
formation of an atmosphere of trust and solution of political issues.