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On April 16 the Chair of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration Naira Zohrabyan met with the deputies of the Bundestag Martin Pätzold and Tankred Schipanski. Reiner Morell, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to the RA attended the meeting.

Naira Zohrabyan has presented her position to the guests on the approaches which will serve as a basis for the RA-EU legal future document. Mrs Zohrabyan invited the German MPs to take part in the parliamentary hearings to be held next day, during which the MPs and the experts will openly discuss all the problems existing on the RA-EU agenda. She has highlighted the fact that not only political, but also the economic cooperation component in the legal future document of cooperation with Armenia is discussed. By the Committee Chair’s assessment, the future document cannot have an economic cooperation component, taking into consideration the fact that half of Armenia’s goods turnover is with the European Union. Mrs Zohrabyan has underlined that, of course, it cannot be the Deep Free Trade Agreement with its whole volume, but she has highlighted that the EU now tries to find the common edges with Armenia, which will not contradict our obligations assumed before other economic integration structure.

During the meeting the sides also touched upon the Armenian Genocide Centennial. Talking about the position of Germany, Naira Zohrabyan has noted that no economic and political interest ever can and should be higher from historical truth. Nevertheless, she thanked the German deputies, who on April 24 will organize events dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims in different communities and cities of Germany.

The sides discussed the NK problem, and also touched upon the regional problems, particularly the Treaty of Lausanne and the new economic opportunities to be created in the region after eliminating the punitive measures towards Iran.