On October 24 RA NA President Artur Baghdasaryan received the EU Troika delegation headed by Brian Fall, UK Special Representative for the South Caucasus.

During the meeting issues pertaining to the current situation of the relations of the European Union and South Caucasus countries, in particular, Armenia and their development were discussed. In response, Mr. Fall noted that in the European Union they also find that the individual partnership programmes move forward more slowly than it’s expected, and one of the goals of the visit is boosting those programmes as in EU they really want to speed up the development of the relations.

At the guest’s request NA President Artur Baghdasaryan informed about the reform processes taking place in Armenia: Electoral Code, constitutional reforms and already appointed referendum. The NA President noted that Armenia-EU developing relations in Armenia are observed as a political priority and the political field also expects the continuation of the started process. As Artur Baghdasaryan is convinced, the development of the individual partnership programmme should not be linked with Azerbaijan-Cyprus relations, and we should initiate the implementation of the programme as soon as possible, which will make us closer to the European Union.

Both sides highlighted the constitutional reforms in Armenia and noted that the reforms enjoyed the high estimation of the international institutions.

The Parliament President highlighted the democratic development in the whole region and underscored that the three republics of the South Caucasus are observed as united market, so the isolation of one country from the economic programme is impermissible, in particular, the construction of Turkey-Georgia new railway, when there is already functioning railway through the territory of Armenia, and in these issues the stance of the European Union should be displayed.

In the aspect of the inter-parliamentary co-operation, they highlighted the establishment of the South Caucasus Inter-parliamentary Assembly from 2007, which is a good opportunity to jointly discuss the problems for the South Caucasus countries. They also touched upon the Armenian-Turkish relations and regional processes in the aspect of establishing peace and developing political-economic co-operation.

During the meeting other issues were also discussed.