European Parliament adopted resolutions on Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday during the plenary session in Strasburg.

“The association agreements that the EU is negotiating with Armenia and Azerbaijan should make the region safer, both by promoting a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and by making EU support conditional upon their human rights performance and democratic reforms. On these, both countries still have a long way to go,” says the statement posted on parliament’s website.

Parliament’s resolutions make recommendations to the Council and the Commission on lines to take when negotiating association agreements with Armenia and Azerbaijan.

MEPs call on both countries to do more to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The resolutions condemn the region’s militarisation and high military expenditure and call on EU Member States to stop supplying weapons and munitions to both countries.

Parliament also calls on the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to tone down the language of their statements to pave the way for a genuine dialogue.

Both rapporteurs stressed that although the association agreements could not resolve the conflict, the EU should strive to contribute to stability in the region, for example by focusing on the importance of youth exchange and academic mobility to promote confidence building during the negotiations on visa facilitation and readmission agreements.

MEPs praise Armenia’s efforts to pursue ambitious reforms to incorporate EU practices in justice, freedom, security and especially migration sectors, but stress the need to ensure that its May parliamentary elections are free and fair.

“The parliamentary elections of 6 May will be a test of Armenia’s determination to have good relations with the EU. If they will be free and fair, and I believe they will, this will demonstrate that Armenia sticks to its commitments in serious way”, said rapporteur Tomasz Piotr Poreba.

The resolution notes that Armenia has yet to complete a “transparent and impartial investigation of the events of 1 March 2008.”