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On June 23, the Chair of the RA NA Standing Committee on European Integration Naira Zohrabyan received Judith Farnworth, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the RA.

The Committee Chair has highlighted the Armenian-British inter-parliamentary cooperation, noting that it however, is not used with its whole potential. Mrs Zohrabyan highly assessed the work of the past years of the British-Armenian All-party Parliamentary Group, expressing hope that the MPs involved in the Friendship Group to be formed after the elections held in the United Kingdom will give new quality with their work to the inter-parliamentary cooperation.

The sides touched upon the implementation of the programme directed to the capability development of the RA National Assembly. In this context Naira Zohrabyan highly appreciated the programme Women in Politics brought into life on the joint initiative of the Embassy of the United Kingdom and the British Council Office, as a result of which the accumulated experience helped to pass a number of laws in the RA Parliament, particularly the gender equality, the protection of the rights of the persons with disabilities and in the sphere of women’s and men’s equal rights and equal opportunities. Mrs Zohrabyan also informed that in future the Committee will initiate discussions of the legislative field regulation connected with the family violence, expressing hope that the experts aimed at the capacity-building for the NA will contribute to the elaboration works of that important legislative package.

In her turn Judith Farnworth emphasized the continuity of the programmes being implemented in Armenia by the UK Ambassador, noting that the one of the components of the programme will be the development of female MPs’ capabilities. Mrs Farnworth stated that the UK Government with its relevant projects will also assist in establishing the Whistleblowers’ Institute and anti-corruption body.

The parties highlighted the signing of the New Agreement of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership to be signed in the Eastern Partnership Summit on November 24. The Committee Chair noted that after signing the Agreement a big legislative package will be brought to the parliament, which supposes the very active cooperation with the parliaments of the EU member states, including the Parliament of the United Kingdom.