Ways of deepening the ties between Armenia and EU

Today the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia met the Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy.

On April 6 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Eduard Nalbandyan met the delegation headed by the Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle who has arrived in Armenia.

Welcoming the first visit of the Commissioner to Armenia, the Minister Nalabandyan noted that the visit allows to define steps directed to further cooperation and discussions on different questions available in the agenda prior to the forthcoming visit of the president of Armenia Serj Sargsyan to the EU institutions.

Both sides stressed that the relations between Armenia and EU are on the rise and that the cooperation with the EU has advanced to a new level due to the policy of Eastern Cooperation. Sides expressed their hope that the foundations for Eastern Cooperation policy will be strengthened and the cooperation will have its further expansion both bilaterally and multilaterally.

While expressing his gratitude for the welcome reception, the Commissioner Füle said that he is glad to have made the visit to Armenia. In his opinion, the frequently made visits to the Caucasian region taking place at different levels of the EU representatives witness of the importance that is given to the Policy of the Eastern Cooperation.

Commissioner Štefan Füle has highly appraised the functioning of the EU Advisory Group in Armenia which, in his opinion, makes an important contribution to the Euro-integration of the country.

Eduard Nalbandyan gave the importance to the start of the negotiations around the association with the EU structures and the universal free trade agreement within the framework of the Policy of Eastern Cooperation. The Minister Nalbandyan made special stress on the importance given to facilitating the process of granting entry permissions coming from Armenia to the EU. He mentioned that in this connection Armenia has undertaken a number of steps and it is ready to sign an agreement facilitating this process.

The Commissioner Štefan Füle informed that the mandate for the process of negotiations to commence is currently in the final stage of the internal discussions at the EU. He said that is likely that at the end of April the EU Council will endorse the negotiations mandate on associative relations with the countries of the South Caucasus. The Commissioner Štefan Füle said that the main goal of the Eastern Cooperation Policy is the issue of facilitating the regime of entry into the EU. During the meeting, different aspects of international and regional problems were also discussed. The Minister Nalbandyan informed about the latest developments in the process of the negotiations around Karabakh at the request of the guest.

Addressing the issue of the relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan, the Minister Nalbandyan expressed his gratitude for the assistance and constructive approach of the EU in the the development of the process of normalizations of relations. The Commissioner Štefan Füle underlined the continuity of the facilitation of the EU to the process and expressed his hope that the sides would ratify the protocols signed around six months ago without preconditions.