The European Union can contribute to the advancement of negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the program “Eastern Partnership” is one of the steps on this path, said the MP from the ruling Moderate party and member of the Swedish Parliamentary Committee on European Affairs Gustav Blix.

“The EU and Sweden want to play a constructive part in solving the frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. I think that a European integration is a way forward and the Eastern Partnership is a part of that. This program creates a natural framework for reducing tensions and launching the process,” Blix said in an interview with Trend News agency.

According to him, EU has been successful in solving other conflicts in Europe through cooperation in the great European integration project. “All conflicts in the region, including Nagorno-Karabakh, have to find a political solution exclusively on the basis of respect for international law and international borders. Achieving this, it will be easier to begin the process of economic and market integration and improve living conditions for every nation,” Blix said.

However, Blix doubts that a solution to the conflict will be possible overnight. “The conflict has been ongoing for over 20 years, and it is naive to believe that solutions can be achieved in an instant. However, Sweden believes that through integration and empowerment of six member countries of the Eastern Partnership" can be done to establish cooperation and the future membership in the EU may be one of the ways to solve this problem,” Blix said.

Blix believes other regional countries such as Turkey must be involved in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict besides the U.S. and Russia.

The Eastern Partnership Program is a Polish-Swedish initiative under the EU Neighborhood Policy aimed at improving EU relations with six former Soviet countries Azerbaijan, Armenia Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, and Ukraine. The program envisages the allocation of 600 million euro to these countries until 2013 to strengthen state institutions, control borders and help small companies.