1 / 4

On April 9, at the joint sitting of the RA NA Standing Committee on European Integration and the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations moderated by Naira Zohrabyan and Armen Ashotyan the draft law on Ratifying the Comprehensive and Enhanced Agreement on one hand between the Republic of Armenia and the European Union and the Nuclear Energy European Community and on the other hand, their member states would be included in the draft laws of the agendas of the third session of the RA NA sixth convocation and on April 10 regular sittings. The Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Świtalski also attended the debate.

The key speaker, the RA Deputy Foreign Minister Karen Nazaryan present in general terms the Agreement, noting that the negotiation process going on around it ended in February of the current year, after which the parties turned to the legal examination of the document. Its Armenian and English versions were published.

The Deputy Foreign Minister touched upon the signing process, noting that two working Groups worked which were engaged in the political and economic parts of the document.

28 EU member countries should ratify the Agreement comprised of 386 Articles and 3000 pages: by now one country ratified it. The RA Constitutional Court and the RA Government had already approved it. In Karen Nazaryan’s word, the Agreement will give an opportunity to strengthen the political dialogue between Yerevan and Brussels and will create a firm basis for continuing the economic and social reforms. By the Agreement the cooperation in the spheres of energy, transport and protection of environment will enliven and the RA citizens’ mobility will increase. It will also contribute to the strnegthening of the trade-economic ties and the encouragement of the investments.

The Committee Chairs Armen Ashotyan and Naira Zohrabyan delivered speeches.

Assessing historical the Agreement, the Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations considered it one of the successful episodes in the history of the foreign policy of our country. Armen Ashotyan expressed hope that the EU member countries would ratify the Agreement as soon as possible. He has especially highlighted the intensification of the parliamentary oversight in the spheres, as well as the parliamentary cooperation in the new format with the EU member countries which is designed by this Agreement. The public awareness and the involvement of the civil forces in these processes are highlighted.

Naira Zohrabyan also emphasized the signing of the Agreement and deemed necessary the process of compliance of the RA legislation with the EU legislation, expressing hope that soon the process of the visa liberlisation also would begin. She has also highlighted the opportunity of the parliamentary cooperation in the new format and has documented with satisfaction that the Agreement is one of the unique documents on which almost all political forces in Armenia agree.

The RA NA deputies Karen Bekaryan, Samvel Farmanyan and Mihran Hakobyan expressed their positive viewpoints and presented recommendations on the Agreement.