EASTERN PARTNERSHIP OPENS NEW WAYS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES
Anna Nazaryan

"Radiolur"
26.06.2009 17:43

"The European Eastern Partnership creates certain opportunities for the
participating countries to get closer to Europe. It’s important for the
countries involved to contribute to the program by their own ideas,
because without their active participation the program is doomed to
fail," the Ambassador of Poland to Armenia, Tomas Knothe said during
the international conference on "The Eastern Partnership and the
prospects for democracy building in the South Caucasus" organized by
the Caucasus Institute and the South Caucasus Bureau of the Heinrich
Boll Foundation.

This Polish-Swedish initiative, which envisages creation of free
trade zones, opens ways for economic development, added Alexander
Dileba, Director of the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy
Association.

"The European Union is the richest market in the world with a high
level of economic development, and the opportunity of creation of free
trade zones will become an open door for the economic development of
the countries involved," Alexander Dileba said.

The participating countries are provided with an opportunity to have
contacts with EU member states, he added.

Director of the Heinrich Boll Foundation in Armenia Iris Kempe
spoke about turning the ideas into concrete programs.20She hinted
about the involvement of Russia and Turkey and the cooperation with
those countries. Director of the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies Richard Giragosian emphasized the necessity of
cooperating with Iran, as well.

Political scientist Stepan Grigoryan does not imagine how the free
trade zones can be created with the Armenian-Turkish border being
closed.