The members of the Delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly invited a press conference today. Some questions referred to visa liberation, to which the leader of the Delegation, Armen Ashotyan answered: “We have each of our Delegation member included in any of political groups. And what do they tell us? They say that the former agreement on visa facilitation and readmission is not completely brought to life yet. This is what our EU colleagues tell us. It is true, the execution of that agreement requires time. Armenia was to sign separate agreements on readmission and visa facilitation after that agreement. However, this is a process. The dialogue of visa facilitation is also a process, it is not a one-time decision, it is not possible to do it in a moment. What we implied was the following: dear European colleagues, if we bring parallels with these two agendas both of which are time-consuming, then let us work towards the verification of the current agreement on one hand and from the other hand let us work on visa facilitation dialogue parallelly in order not to lose time, inasmuch as both are important and time-consuming. Here I have got two points. Visa facilitation agreements with Ukraine and Georgia are very important for promoting the interpersonal contacts among the countries of Eastern Partnership. It also has the opposite side. Visa regime violation cases increase in number by these two countries gradually. We are told about dozens of thousands of cases. The official figures show that people from both the Ukraine and Georgia emigrate connected with this circumstance. Euroburocrats think that there is no need to hurry. Our response is very precise and strong: Armenia should not bear responsibility for and the burden of the issues which EU faced connected with other countries, it should not suffer if issues are in place with other countries. Of course, we understand that if such regime with the Republic of Armenia functions, a part of our citizens will be attracted to violate it. I do not say all Armenians will be very lawful and no such violations will take place. But the Republic of Armenia should not bear the burden of the realization of the agreement with other countries.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
