Fule: Armenia one of EU partnership leaders
10.07.2013,
18:33
Armenia is one of the leaders of the EU-initiated Eastern Partnership Program, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule said on Wednesday as met with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan in Yerevan, the Armneian foreign ministry’s press office reports.
YEREVAN, July 10. /ARKA/. Armenia is one of the leaders of the EU-initiated Eastern Partnership Program, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule said on Wednesday as met with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan in Yerevan, the Armneian foreign ministry’s press office reports.
He rated highly relations between the European Union and Armenia and expressed hope that the Association Agreement between Armenia and the European Union would be initialed in November in Vilnius at the Eastern Partnership Summit.
The EU is expected to seal association agreements and free trade zone agreements with some countries, including Armenia, at this summit.
Fule and Nalbandyan also stressed the importance of signing a readmission document and an agreement simplifying visa regime.
The latter said that considerable progress had been seen in EU-Armenia cooperation in the last couple of years.
The minister also thanked the European Union for supporting the Armenian authorities in implementation of reforms in the country.
The Eastern Partnership initiative was put forward by Poland and Sweden in 2008 at the EU summit in Brussels and officially constituted in May 2009 in Prague.
The aim of the program is to make the European Union’s ties with Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Belarus closer without providing EU membership to these countries.
The program implies significant enhancement of political interaction level, a wide integration of former Soviet republics in the EU economy, enlargement of financial assistance for them and stronger energy safety. ---0----
