On November 27, the Chair and the members of the RA NA Standing Committee on European Integration met with Lawrence Meredith, Director of European Commission’s Directorate General for Neighbourhood and Accession Negotiations, who is in Armenia on a working visit and with the representatives of the EU Delegation to Armenia headed by Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin.
Welcoming the guests in the National Assembly Arman Yeghoyan, the Committee Chair has highlighted the continuation of Armenia-EU Partnership and has stated that this year they have resumed the EU Exchange Experience Programmes in Armenia via Twinning Tool of the European Commission for Cooperation interrupted in 2015, where this year the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia also participates. And the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument of the European Commission (TAIEX) has approved 20 projects this year, 13 out of them will be aimed at developing the capacity of bodies ensuring application of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.
The Committee Chair informed the guests that the RA-EU Agreement Roadmap for the implementation of the norms already being in force was approved by the RA Prime Minister on June 1 of this year and immediately entered into force. The document includes about 200 events aimed at the application of the Agreement, among them the highlights of this year’s 2019-2022 Anti-Corruption Action Plan and the National Strategy and Judicial Reforms for 2019-2024 strategy as well as the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights and the Action Plan for 2020-2022.
The interlocutors agreed that only through the creation of a stable legislative base and continuously held educational events could be possible to make already recorded successes in the fight against corruption be irreversible. The Committee members also emphasized the development of the infrastructures and the energy efficient systems, as well as cooperation with the EU in the framework of educational reforms.
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Mr Meredith in his turn reaffirmed the readiness of the European Union to support the reforms in Armenia especially highlighting the implementation of the environmental events, police reforms and digitalisation works, as well as the work to increase energy efficiency and to improve the investment environment. He also stressed the role of the inter-parliamentary platforms – the Euronest and the Parliamentary Partnership Committee in strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
An agreement was reached to clarify the new programmes of cooperation in all discussed areas and the toolkit for their implementation before the next meeting.
NA RA