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At the 3^rd Meeting of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Partnership Committee the member of the Armenian delegation Meri Galstyan gave a speech.

“Dear colleagues,

Thank you for hosting us at the 3^rd Meeting of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Partnership Committee in Brussels.

I want to emphasize the importance of EU-Armenia partnership which is dynamically developing and given the already wide spectrum of our cooperation, I do hope that we can always find new directions and pathways to extend our relations even further. The significance of this is especially underlined the context of current challenges that Armenia is facing: particularly security risks, post war economy rehabilitation and democratic reforms agenda. I would reemphasize the vital importance of your current and continuous support in all these three directions and not only.

The major security issues and geopolitical instability in the region, our non-stop and genuine efforts to reach the long endeavoured peace with our neighbours regardless of the ongoing and painful provocations by Azerbaijan alongside the borders of Armenia and NK urges the necessity to further accelerate cooperation with our European partners, and European Parliament in particular, to continue mobilization of actions and efforts towards stability and peace in the region.

The very recent of such provocations happened last Sunday involving killing of 3 Nagorno Karabakh police officers under the false accusation that they were transporting weapons from Armenia to Stepanakert whereas they were on a regular police patrol. Not speaking about the blockade of Lachin corridor depriving 120.000 Armenians of NK of their basic rights – as you are very well informed about this already in detail. This behavior by Azerbaijan by no means contributes to reaching stability in the region, moreover it sabotages the so much fragile process of reaching peace between two countries – changing the tools of the peacebuilding process from negotiation to threat and violence.

And this is where your continuous efforts are simply vital both as a mediator and as a solid geopolitical actor to provide targeted address and objective evaluation of the situation.

I want to extend my gratitude and appreciation for all of your efforts and active engagement so far including European Parliament’s resolution on the humanitarian consequences of the blockade in NK, the report adopted by the European Parliament on the Implementation of common foreign and security policy which condemns the aggression of Azerbaijan in September 2022 alongside the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. The launch of the EU Monitoring Capacity in Armenia in 2022 followed by the second specifically dedicated civilian EU mission in Armenia launched in February 2023 both represent an important and unprecedented achievement for both Armenia and the EU. The first mission contributed to the de-escalation of the situation on the border and a drastic decrease in ceasefire violations. We are full of hope in continuation of this impact through the second civilian mission as well.

To sum up, I want to reiterate our commitment in continuing the path towards democratization and leveling up reforms agenda in all respective priority sectors such as human rights, fight against corruption, judicial reforms, economic liberalisations notwithstanding tremendous security and geopolitical challenges. We see democracy as the only long lasting and sustainable pathway in reaching stability and peace in the region. And the more this vision becomes dominant in the region, the sooner that stability will be achieved,” Meri Galstyan concluded.