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At February 3 Press conference Vahan Hovhannisyan, Head of the Armenian Delegation in the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly of the Eastern Partnership, gave details about the sittings and discussions, which took place in Brussels.

During those days the sittings of the Committees on Economic Integration, Energy and Political Affairs were held. The sitting of the fourth Committee on Social Affairs, Culture and Civil Society will be held in Yerevan in three weeks. In Vahan Hovhannisyan’s words, this will be the first visiting sitting of the EURONEST: up to now all the events have been held within the boundaries of the European Union. Mr Hovhannisyan expressed satisfaction with the active work of the Armenian delegation and the effective activity of the Advisory Group.

In Brussels discussions have been also held about the reform of the EURONEST Rules of Procedure. According to Vahan Hovhannisyan, there is a big pressure on the Armenian delegation, it will be continuous and the next delegations will be ready for that.

In the Committee on Economic Integration Azerbaijan has tried to substantiate Armenia’s economic difficulties by the circumstance of the Karabakh conflict and the closed border with Azerbaijan. Mr Hovhannisyan has noticed that in three regional states the living standards are almost the same, despite the fact that the neighbouring countries have oil and sea. The deputy considered an important confirmation the idea sounded in the Committee on Political Affairs and address to Azerbaijan that the issues of energy importance begin to dominate on the issues of value. Mr Hovhannisyan presented the evaluations of the state of democracy given to Armenia and Azerbaijan. It has been noted for Armenia that the democracy is slowly developing, and the level of corruption is evident. In the case of Azerbaijan they haven’t talked about certain issues, as there “the bases of human rights are, in general, crumbled.” The responsible official for the OSCE/ODIHR has also been invited at the sitting of the Committee on Political Affairs, who has confirmed the representation of the Observation Mission at the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia. It has been decided that the Observation Groups of the European Parliament, PACE and OSCE will work with the idea of a common team. In connection with the debates on proportional-majoritarian electoral systems it has been noted that the given country has to decide which electoral system to be guided with. Nevertheless it has been sounded, according to Mr Hovhannisyan, one important idea about it: the possibility of free competitiveness of the parties is a priority.

Besides the committee sittings, the delegation also has taken part at the sitting of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Parliament, where among other items, the preliminary reports of the European Parliament on Armenia and Azerbaijan. In comparison Mr Hovhannisyan again has mentioned the report on Armenia, which has presented the deputy Tomasz Poreba, had positive outlines, which cannot be said about the report on Azerbaijan made by Ja Temyaki. This has caused pro-Azerbajani lobbysts’ anger. They, in particular, have expressed their discontent with Armenia’s legal system, as well as they have indicated the circumstance of being Russia’s ally, have delivered obvious anti-Armenian speeches. In the EURONEST there have been also speeches for Armenia, particularly, the proposal of the Azerbaijani side to include the Karabakh conflict in the final text of the Committee, has been enjoyed resistance and has been refused. Vahan Hovhannisyan considered important the substantiations of the deputies of the European Parliament that the European Parliament should not interfere into that issue.

Vahan Hovhannisyan also answered the journalists’ questions.