European Union hails political dialogue with Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net - There was good political dialogue with the Armenian government in 2009, according to the European Commission’s Progress Report Armenia on implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy in 2009.

It says that “Armenia widely aligned itself with cooperation on foreign and security policy (CFSP) declarations and is generally very active in cooperating on CFSP-related issues.”

Besides, a regular EU-Armenian Human Rights Dialogue was launched in December 2009.

The report goes on saying that “Armenia took a major step in regional cooperation and dialogue with Turkey, resulting in the historic signature of the two protocols on the establishment and development of bilateral relations.”

“The Armenian authorities and civil society representatives participated actively in the multilateral framework of the Eastern Partnership, in particular through open dialogue and their contribution to the working programs for the four thematic platforms.”

The report also refers to Armenia’s steps “taken to address the internal political crisis following the aftermath of the Presidential elections in February 2008, including the Amnesty issued in June, the amendments to the Criminal Code and the publication of the report by the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Inquiry Committee.”

However, the report goes on saying that “the monitoring of trials related to the March 2008 events identified various shortcomings.” According to the report, “further reforms in the justice sector and the area of the rule of law will be of key importance.”

“Good progress was made regarding improving the legislative framework in the area of anticorruption,” the report reads, adding that “despite good legislative progress, no reduction of perceived corruption was reported by international surveys in 2009, demonstrating the need for effective enforcement in this area.”

As for EU-Armenia cooperation, the report says: “The EU and Armenia agreed to move forward with deepening and broadening of the EU-Armenia relations. In parallel and within the Eastern Partnership framework the EU started preparations for upgrading contractual relations with Armenia. Negotiating directives for an Association Agreement were adopted by the EU in May 2010. In the framework of the future Association Agreement, negotiations on a deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA) will start once the necessary conditions have been met.”