President Serzh Sargsyan met with the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy

Tonight in Brussels, President Serzh Sargsyan met with the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the President of Armenia and President of the European Council made a joint statement.



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Statement by President Serzh Sargsyan at the conclusion of the meeting with the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy

Thank you, Mr. President and allow to once again express my satisfaction with today’s meeting. I would also like to once again congratulate you publicly on your reelection as President of the European Council and express confidence that during your tenure our relations with the EU Council will register new success.

The agenda of our today’s meeting has been pretty full, which testifies to the dynamic nature of our relations.

We have discussed today with Mr. Rompuy issues related to Armenia-EU cooperation and spoke about our future actions. We stressed the importance of quite good developments currently present in the relations between Armenia and European Union and reiterated our determination to constantly deepen our cooperation in various spheres, aimed at the reformation in the areas of economy, good governance, democracy, human rights, rule of law and all aspects of social life.

We have also touched upon the process of the wide-range reforms which are conducted in accordance with the European standards and reiterated that these reforms constitute part of our general agenda with the EU.

We also underscored that progress registered in our negotiations on the Association Agreement testifies to the common approaches and understanding of the parties on the fundamental issues. We have noted with satisfaction that in the nearest future we will launch negotiations with EU on the creation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Zone. We have also highlighted the importance of the negotiations on visa facilitation with the EU countries which kicked off quite recently in Yerevan.

We have also spoken about recommendations pertinent to the South Caucasus states which were adopted by the EU Council on February 27. I stated my satisfaction that in the section related to Armenia, the EU position concurs with our approaches. It clearly reflects progress achieved in our relations on all critical issues of our agenda.

Particularly gratifying are recommendations related to the NK conflict. They once again reiterate the fact that positions of Armenia and the international community, including EU, coincide. We have stated on many occasions that people of NK are part of the European family and carriers of the same values. Armenia has stressed more than once the necessity of direct contacts with the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh.

With Mr. Rompuy we spoke also about cooperation in the area of human rights which in recent years has become rather active.

Meetings in the framework of the Armenia-EU dialogue on human rights have already taken place three times, which, in mutual assessment, have been conducted in an open and constructive atmosphere.

Such mechanism is providing a reciprocal opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, as well as to discuss prospects of concrete cooperation in the area of protection of human rights.

We have also spoken about the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia. I have noted that the leadership of Armenia is truly determined to organize and conduct parliamentary elections in May, 2012 in accordance with the international standards. We are unwavering in our resolve to give a new impetus to the comprehensive reforms conducted in Armenia. With this regard, organization of free and fair elections is of pivotal importance. I thank you for an engaging conversation and we are looking forward to seeing you in Yerevan. Thank you for keeping your promise.