BRUSSELS. - The axis of the Armenia-EU cooperation is the reforms carried out in Armenia. 

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said the aforementioned on Monday at the joint press-conference with President of the European Council Donald Tusk in Brussels.  

Before the press-conference, Sargsyan had a tête-à-tête with Mr Tusk. The talks continued round the working lunch held in honor of the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who is on a working visit to Brussels.  President of Armenia and President of the European Council summed up the results of the meeting through joint statements before the media representatives.

In his speech, Sargsyan noted: “I would like to once again thank President of the European Council, our very good friend Mr Tusk, for the invitation extended to me to visit Brussels and for the detailed and open conversation. We have held numerous meetings with Mr Tusk, both in his previous and current capacities and I warmly recall all our meetings. I appreciate the frankness. Thank you very much.

As the President said, the central topic of our discussion was the new Armenia-EU Framework Agreement. And today I am pleased to state that the parties have concluded the negotiations. The new legal document, the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, reflects the real scope and deepness of Armenia-EU relations.

Meanwhile, it is necessary to note that apart from the Framework Agreement we have recorded significant progress in sectoral cooperation, signing EU Programme for the Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) and Horizon 2020 programmes. In the forthcoming period we will also complete the work aimed at joining the Common Aviation Area and Creative Europe Project.

In the previous two years, the Armenia-EU cooperation has been distinguished for its activeness: the political dialogue has significantly intensified and the cooperation in different spheres has expanded.

Of course, we have discussed with Mr Tusk other issues on the Armenia-EU agenda, touching upon regional and international developments. We expect that in the future the dialogue round the visa liberalization with Armenia will be launched, this being enshrined in the joint declaration of the Riga Summit of the Eastern Partnership. This will greatly contribute to the expansion and deepening of ties between our people. 

As you know, the major axis of our cooperation is the reforms implemented in Armenia. Throughout the past 25 years, the EU has constantly been by our side, providing substantial financial, technical and moral support to us, this being visible in different spheres: the spheres of public administration, justice, agriculture, statistics, and public procurement have been reformed; the sphere of secondary vocational education has been improved with the view of meeting the demands of the labor market; the business and investment environment of Armenia has [also] been improved. We are determined to move forward this collaboration for recording new achievements in other spheres of mutual interest. We are very grateful for this support.

In a course of a month, Armenia will hold parliamentary elections, which will be the first since the constitutional reforms carried out in Armenia in 2015.

Our vision on changing the state governance system is the following: to make a step forward towards the further development and strengthening of democracy.    The election system has also undergone serious changes ahead of the preparation for these elections: as a result of the consensus between all the political forces, we adopted a new Electoral Code, which strengthened the basis for holding open, transparent and fairer elections. Our objective is to hold elections, which will significantly raise the confidence of our society towards the electoral processes. For this purpose, we have invited and welcomed the participation of possibly large number of representational international observation missions during these elections, including from the European Council. At the same time, we encourage the local observers and representatives of civil society to be active.

I thanked Mr Tusk for being by our side at this important stage and providing significant funds for the implementation of the provisions of the Electoral Code. I am confident that the results of this support and our cooperation will be visible for everyone.”