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YEREVAN. – “Honeymoon” in the interaction of Armenia and GSP + regime is over, and we are now at the stage of “Lasting marriage”, advisor on trade issues of the European External Relations Service, head of the first GSP + monitoring mission visiting Armenia Guus Houttuin said.

None of the  nine GSP+ beneficiary countries is perfect from this point of view, nor is Armenia, EU representative said.

As a result of discussions with various circles, EU identified three concerns in Armenia: the absence of an effective labour inspection system; in order to be fully compliant with the relevant UN conventions is the need to adopt a comprehensive law on the prevention of domestic violence, and, finally, an independent and effective judiciary.

"All three issues will be examples of what I would call "gateway issues" for any country that wants to combine economic growth with good governance, which ultimately are beneficial for both citizens and business.

I just returned from the meeting chaired by Vice-Minister of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia Garegin Melkonyan where we went through a number of issues, where we want to see further actions by the Armenian Government, including the three points I just mentioned,” he said.

The EU plans to publish a report  around the 1st of January, 2018, which will be submitted to the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers of 28 EU member states in Brussels and to civil society. As a concrete follow-up to the mission, EU will send a very shorlist areas where it would like to see actions rather than plans by the Government and prefereably over this fall so that we are able to incorporate any action in our report.

The first report on Armenia, he continued, was published in January 2016. "And we told our Armenian counterparts that the "honeymoon" is over and we are now at the stage of "marriage" where we need to invest in lasting relationship. That means, from the Armenien side, delivering on the 27 core Conventions and we are doing our part in continuing trade privileges in 8.7 million euros per year assisting the Armenian Government to implement changes. So we are ready to invest. I hope that the Armenian Government will be ready to invest as well,” Houttuin added.

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