On November 3 the Chairperson of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration Ms. Naira Zohrabyan received the Head of EU Advisory Group Mr. Rolf Boehnke and Operations/Neighbourhood Policy Section Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Armenia Mr. Uffe Holst Jensen. During the meeting issues regarding Euronest start the forum of the parliamentary format of the Eastern Partnership and the appointment of the EU Adviser in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia were discussed.

The Chairperson of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration Ms. Naira Zoharbyan presented the works of the creation of the start forum of the parliamentary format of the Eastern Partnership, which was held in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. In her opinion, Armenia-EU cooperation actively develops in different spheres. In this context Ms. Zohrabyan highlighted the importance of the Eastern Partnership in the political association of the region and economic integration to the European Union. She finds that the parliamentary format of the Eastern Partnership should not create new divisive lines, but it should try to promote the cooperation and development, discussing general problems, which contain common interest. In her assessment, the parliamentary format will be doomed to failure if an attempt is made to bring regional conflicts to that format. The parliamentary experience of EU member states is important for Armenia, which, in Ms. Zohrabyan’s conviction, is one of the key components of Euronest. She regrets that the neighbouring Azerbaijan displays a non-constructive position, announcing that she is not going to cooperate with Armenia in the Eastern Partnership format. The Chairperson of the committee reminded that because of Azerbaijan’s non-constructive position the works of the Management and Improvement Committee of Common Borders turning it from the regional common format into Armenia-Georgia, Georgia-Azerbaijan bilateral format, losing its main importance, i.e. boost the cooperation in the region. Representative of Azerbaijan in Stockholm has also displayed constructive position, demanding to discuss regional conflicts in Euronest, in particular the NK problem. Ms. Zohrabyan said that the Minsk Group is engaged with the Karabakh problem and it’s not acceptable for the Armenian side to move the issue to another format.

“We are open for regional cooperation, we are for finding common problems and we are absolutely against such issues, which can create new divisive lines,” Ms. Zohrabyan said, in this respect highlighting the role of the parliaments because the parliaments can have serious impact in driving forward the established platforms with the Eastern Partnership format. She hopes that the Euronest will be a serious stimulus in the political association and economic integration.

Touching upon the issue of appointing EU Adviser in RA NA the Chairperson of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration Ms. Naira Zoharbyan highlighted that though with delay but RA NA will also have EU Adviser as one of the important problems of the European integration is the compliance of the European standards of RA legislation. He finds that in this issue the role of the adviser and support will be big. Ms. Zohrabyan is also confident that the adviser’s work will be effective both in the respect of both NA Committee on European Integration and cooperation with the parliament.

The Head of EU Advisory Group Mr. Rolf Bonke and Operations/Neighbourhood Policy Section Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Armenia Mr. Uffe Holst Jensen thanked Ms. Zohrabyan for presenting in detail the works of Euronest, touched upon the issues pertaining to the appointment of EU Adviser in RA NA.

They said that the appointed two advisers have many years of parliamentary experience. The Head of EU Advisory Group Mr. Rolf Bonke said that the USAID would also provide an adviser to the parliament, and as donor organizations he indicated OSCE and GTZ, which also had intention to show support in this issue. He highlighted the systemization of the work of the three structures for avoiding repetitions.

The Chairperson of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration Ms. Naira Zoharbyan is convinced that the EU Adviser’s presence will promote the rise of the effectiveness of further cooperation.