The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, met with the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Hoavik Abrahamyan. Armenia makes part of the European Neighborhood Policy. Among others, they discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the negotiations for the deeper comprehensive association agreement between the EU and Armenia. After their meeting, both Presidents offered a press point.
“Armenia is a major partner for the EU. The cooperation between our two parliaments is vital for the future developments. We discussed about the parliamentarian election of spring last year, we discussed the presidential elections ahead, evaluated the conformity of the elections to the European standards last year and we discussed about our observation mission for the presidential election. We discussed the necessity to go ahead and to develop the negotiation for a deeper comprehensive free trade agreement,” Mr. Schulz said following the meeting.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is unsustainable, it’s quite clear. Both sides should do efforts towards a solution. Both sides are invited by the EP to avoid any statement which could lead to more tensions and more conflicts,” EP President added.
Armenian Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan said, in turn, that “both sides (EU and Armenia) are keen on concluding the Association agreement and the EFTA talks during 2013.” “We emphasized the positive influence of this process on Armenia’s economic development and domestic reforms and in the consolidation of democracy,” he added.
“Armenia adheres to her promise, enabling citizens of the EU to enter the Republic of Armenia, without a visa,” he noted.
“The criteria of the EU concerning the rule of law, transparency, democracy, democratic accountability of executive action; this is in the frame on the ongoing negotiations about the deeper comprehensive free-trade agreement. Without any doubt the co-item of our role as EP to look, is that beside the economical and technical negotiations, these questions of values and democratic standards are a co-element of the negotiations. And this was clearly discussed and agreed between us,” President of eth European Parliament concluded.
