On February 20 Arthur Baghdasaryan, President of RA National Assembly received Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, EU special representative for the South Caucasus and the delegation headed by him. The meeting was attended by Ambassador Torben Holtze, Head of the EU delegation to Armenia and Georgia, Heike Renate Peitsch, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Germany to Armenia, Armen Bayburdyan, RA Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and by other officials.

At the guest’s request Arthur Baghdasaryan, NA President informed of the legislative activities to be carried out by the National Assembly after the constitutional amendments and focused on the improvement in the Electoral Code, as well as in the judicial and local self-government system with respect to the strengthening of democratic processes. Regarding the new EU Neighbourhood Programme as a stimulus for the economic and political development of the regional countries, the Parliament President mentioned that they should bring differentiated approaches into use, and that the countries of the region shouldn’t be treated on an equal basis, though it is naturally easier to consider the South Caucasus a unified political and economic market. Agreeing to this view, Mr. Talvitie mentioned the differentiation of establishing European standards in the three states and highlighted the development of democracy throughout the region, which will allow to avoid the conflicts and implement joint international economic programmes. Being pleased with the EU integration processes of the region’s countries Mr. Talvitie highlighted that it would be of political priority and underlined the essential role of the parliaments.

During the meeting they touched upon the Nagorno Karabagh conflict settlement, and it was mentioned that continuing the negotiations within the framework of OSCE Minsk Group remains a pressing problem, and that the parties should settle the problem through compromises.

In addition to other questions, the opportunities of finding unified resolutions on the energy and transport problems of the region were also discussed with alternative variants within the framework of ensuring pan-European energy security.