President Serzh Sargsyan received today Natalia Voutova, the newly-appointed Head of the Council of Europe (CoE) Office in Armenia.

The Armenian president congratulated Mrs. Voutova on her appointment and wished her success. Stressing the CoE key and unique role in Europe’s general architecture, Serzh Sargsyan noted that Armenia, as a CoE member country, is keen on promoting cooperation with all the CoE institutions.

According to the president, the CoE standards regarding human rights, democracy and the rule of law provide effective guidelines for Armenia, and our country has achieved some results as a CoE member state having membership obligations which tries to fulfill its obligations.

The RA president and the head of the CoE Office in Armenia agreed that Armenia, as a CoE member country, is actively involved in the organization’s activities at all levels.

The Armenian president greatly appreciated the CoE support for the ongoing democratic reforms in our country and presented the implementation status of various reforms, touching upon, inter alia, the process of RA constitutional amendments which are being carried out in close cooperation with the Venice Commission. Natalia Voutova underscored that the CoE supports Armenia’s path to reform implementation and democratic consolidation.

The head of the CoE Office in Armenia expressed satisfaction with Armenia’s chairmanship in the CoE Committee of Ministers in 2013, stressing that Armenia’s six-month mission fulfilled excellently and creditably and the priorities set forth by it have received high praise from the organization. According to her, that chairmanship will remain in the CoE history as a successful one.

Natalia Voutova expressed the hope that taking into account Armenia’s effective cooperation with the CoE and the positive results achieved previously in the course of the RA-CoE Action Plan implementation, the new CoE action plan will likewise be implemented successfully.