Armenia plans finishing EU Association Agreement talks by November 2013: President
03.12.2012,
15:37
Armenia’s goal is before the November 2013 Summit in Vilnius to conclude works on the Association Agreement, including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Zone negotiations, President Serzh Sargsyan said at the joint briefing on Saturday with the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso.
YEREVAN, December 3. /ARKA/. Armenia’s goal is before the November 2013 Summit in Vilnius to conclude works on the Association Agreement, including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Zone negotiations, President Serzh Sargsyan said at the joint briefing on Saturday with the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso.
Mr. Sargsyan added that during the meeting, the negotiations on the EU entry visa facilitation for the citizens of Armenia had been concluded : “it will be signed soon and we expect that it will enter into force in mid-2013.”
“After that, we will be ready to move on to the negotiations regarding the next, more complex stage – abolishment of visa requirement. From January 2013, citizens of EU will be visiting Armenia without obtaining entry visas,” he noted.
This process has one objective – to facilitate contacts between our societies, increase the number of reciprocal visits, and provide new opportunities for the students, scientists, and creative people, according to Mr. Sargsyan.
“We view our interaction with the European structures as an important factor of Armenia’s institutional maturing and successful implementation of reforms.”
Negotiations on the Association Agreement Armenia-EU started on June 19, 2010 in Yerevan. The upcoming agreement will substitute the agreement on partnership and cooperation and is aimed at strengthening the relations between Armenia and the European Union in different spheres, particularly in the sphere of foreign policy, democracy, economic integration, movement of people and energy.
On February 27 the EU’s Trade Commission decided to launch negotiations on a deep and comprehensive free trade area with Armenia to boost economic growth and investment. The launch of the trade negotiations was conditioned upon Armenia fulfilling a set of “key recommendations”. These were issued in June 2009 and covered necessary reforms in key regulatory areas related to trade, in order to prepare Armenia for the upcoming negotiations. -0-
