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On March 19 the Chairperson of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration Naira Zohrabyan received the Armenian representatives of the Civil Forum of the Eastern Partnership programme. The sides discussed the issues regarding the four fundamental platforms of the Eastern Partnership, the mechanisms driving forward through the civil society, as well as parliamentary resources. Special attention was paid to the Euronest, the parliamentary format of the Eastern Partnership.

Mrs. Zohrabyan said that the starting sitting of the Euronest, which was planned in Brussels on March 23, was postponed due to technical reasons. The Committee Chairperson also noted that recently by the signature of RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrhamyan the proposals of the Armenian side on the statute of Euronest, the parliamentary format of the Eastern Partnership had been sent to the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek.

Naira Zohrabyan noted that the statute of the parliamentary format of the Eastern Partnership should be based on four thematic platforms of the Eastern Partnership and partnership agenda, where there is a problem of conflicts, thus, according to Mrs. Zohrabyan, it’s at least suspicious that in the draft of the Euronest statute, which has been sent to the partner states for presenting proposals, the issue of the discussion of the conflicts is included. Though the resolutions and decisions of Euronest have no legal and compulsory force, nevertheless, the Committee Chairperson stressed that evading from the thematic platforms of the Eastern Partnership and agenda and including a problem in Euronest, which is not envisaged by the Eastern Partnership programme is unacceptable for the Armenian side.

The sides also discussed concrete problems concerning the Eastern Partnership and the European Neighbourhood policy.