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On January 25, the press conference of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC) members Aghvan Vardanyan and Alexander Arzumanyan took place, where details were submitted on the works of the sixteenth meeting held in Strasbourg on January 20-21. Let us remind that the NA deputies Samvel Farmanyan (Head of Delegation), Alexander Arzumanyan, Aghvan Vardanyan, Nikol Pashinyan, Vahe Enfiajyan, Edmon Marukyan and Levon Dokholyan were in the delegation.

By Aghvan Vardanyan’s assessment, at the meeting the crisis existing in the RA-EU relations was overcome, which occurred after the unexpected decision of Armenia to enter the EEC. Its evidence is also, according to the MP, the joint final statement adopted at the meeting of the Committee. In his word, this is a qualitative move also with respect to the fact that tomorrow at the PACE Session they will touch upon two anti-Armenian resolutions and on its eve this statement is a positive step by Europe.

Mr Vardanyan touched upon some provisions of the statement, which related to the beginning of the EU-RA high level relations, the assistance of the European Union aimed at the reforms process in Armenia and the effective implementation of the institutional capacities development, the referendum of the Constitutional Amendments held on December 6, the amendments of the new Electoral Code, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the steps undertaken by the Government of Armenia on accepting the Syrian refugees, the events of the Genocide commemoration Centennial, the normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations without preconditions. See the complete text of the statement on the website dated 21.01.2016.

Alexander Arzumanyan shared his colleague’s viewpoint, according to which, the atmosphere of distrust and the coldness existing in the RA-EU relations is overcome. He has noted that the formulations in the document are satisfactory. In the MP’s word, the delegation worked together, the document has been adopted without serious disagreement and almost unanimously.

Aghvan Vardanyan and Alexander Arzumanyan highlighted the call in the statement addressed to the European Union on involving in the exchange and mobility programmes the students and teachers coming from such conflict regions, as Nagorno Karabakh. It has been noted that for the first time in such a document the participation of the NK has been underlined.

The members of the delegation also answered the journalists’ questions.