The Republic of Armenia (RA) received a grant with the amount of 8bln 875mln AMD, 2bln 980mln AMD out of it was targeted, and 5bln 895mln – non targeted. The RA Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan informed about this. On June 5, at the joint sitting of the Standing Committees on European Integration and Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs the debate of the report on RA Stage Budget 2022 Execution continued. The Chair of the Standing Committee on European Integration Arman Yeghoyan and the member of the Standing Committee on Standing Committees on European Integration Arusyak Manavazyan moderated the sitting.
Speaking about expenditures, Vahe Hovhannisyan noted that in the financial year the expenditures spent on the targeted programmes being implemented with the external support without co-financing was 57bln AMD, the expenditures spent at the expense received from the European Union (EU) at the expense of loans – 10bln AMD, at the expense of grants – 2bln 568mln AMD.
“We received budgetary support for deficit financing from the French Development Agency in the amount of 41.6bln AMD, financing was carried out 16.6bln AMD on targeted loans,” the Minister noted that at the expense of external means sub-loans in the amount of 2bln 291mln AMD were given.
“In recent years the most serious challenges and the international, regional developments created for the RA continued having essential impact on our priorities. Along with the further deepening and expansion of the positive agenda of cooperation between the RA and the EU the debates continued on the issues of the RA-EU interaction agenda, as the elimination of the Azerbaijani aggression against the RA sovereign territory, the decrease of tension created on the RA eastern borders and the prevention of further escalation of the situation, the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, the Nagorno Karabakh problem, the situation created as a consequence of the illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan said.
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The Head of the Ministry touched upon the dynamics of Armenia-European Union relations.
“In 2022, the EU-RA relations considerably deepened. It is also conditioned by the EU efforts of promoting the settlement of the relations between the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the Minister noted.
Ararat Mirzoyan informed the parliamentarians that in 2022, the Prime Minister’s 3 visits to Brussels took place, within the frameworks of them the private conversations of the Prime Minister and the President of the European Council Charles Michel and trilateral meetings with the participation of Azerbaijan took place. A series of additional telephone talks and meetings on the international platforms, particularly, within the framework of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly and the Summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie were held conditioned by the procedure of developments in the region.
Reference was also made to the quadrilateral meeting of the RA Prime Minister, the President of Azerbaijan, the President of France and the President of the European Council on October 6, 2022 and the Prague Statement.
“According to the Prague Statement, the EU two-month Monitoring Civilian Mission was sent to Armenia for monitoring along the RA-Azerbaijan international border, and the Alma-Ata Declaration was laid as a basis for the implementation of the demarcation process. After the two-month term the monitoring period was extended,” Ararat Mirzoyan mentioned in his speech.
At the second half of 2022, considerable activeness of the visits of the high ranking officials of the EU executive bodies was recorded, which gave an opportunity to maintain the intensiveness of the works in strengthening the cooperation between the RA and the EU, the implementation of reforms with the support of the EU and in a number of directions. The institutional framework of the Partnership created by the EU-RA Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership continued to effectively work. In this context the Ararat Mirzoyan considered right also to mention that during the financial year, an agreement was reached with Brussels to launch the dialogue on RA-EU Political and Security Issues.
“The works on the dialogue over the RA-EU visa liberalisation continued, expansion of the RA-EU legal-contractual field was recorded,” the Minister noted.
As a result of cooperation between our country and the EU, in 2022, resolutions were adopted on and on testifying the OSCE three fundamental principles, the humanitarian problems being maintained after the 44-day war, including the provision of the return of Armenian prisoners of war in the context of Elimination of cultural values in Nagorno Karabakh urgently and the condemnation of aggression against the RA and the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem.”
The discussions on the vision of maintaining the format of the Eastern Partnership and the future restarted in autumn of 2022. The RA Actively cooperated with the EU for deepening that cooperation and carrying out new directions of cooperation, The Minister highlighted that in 2022, the 50% of his 22 visits had been to the EU Member States.
Returning to the financial indicators, Ararat Mirzoyan informed that during the year 2022, programmes in the amount of 195.7mln with the European structures were approved, programmes of 86.3mln Euros are at the stage of approval, essential works were done, but Sisian-Kajaran part of North-South road highway estimated 900mln Euros had not reached the stage of approval yet.
The MPs addressed question to the Minister. They referred to the themes on not having diplomatic representations in different countries, on the visa liberalization with the EU, on inviting the EU Observation Mission on the RA-Azerbaijan border.
“The EU observers are in the RA border also for getting exact information on the spot in case of the Azerbaijani possible provocation,” Ararat Mirzoyan underlined.
At the end of the meeting the Minister reaffirmed the position of the political force that the RA recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia.
“The Republic of Armenia has no territorial claim from Azerbaijan, and we expect that Azerbaijan has no territorial claim from the Republic of Armenia. Thus process is about making inviolable the Republic of Armenia and the borders of the Republic of Armenia,” the Foreign Minister said.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia