1 / 3

On April 27 the deputies of the NA Heritage faction met with the Vice Chairman of the European People’s Party Group (EPP) in the European Parliament Jaime Mayor Oreja.

Mr Oreja noted that he would visit Armenia to take part in the seminar “The Role of the Values in the Transitional Societies.” He highly appreciated the steps aimed at developing the relations between the Armenian Parliament and the European Parliament.

Presenting the activity and the goals of their party, the Head of the Heritage faction Styopa Safaryan emphasized the membership to the European People’s Party. Mr Safaryan evaluated the role of the European family in Armenia from the view of developing democracy. Within the 2012 parliamentary and 2013 presidential elections Zaruhi Postanjyan touched upon the law on Electoral Law and on Assemblies. Anahit Bakhshyan expressed conviction that the membership to the European People’s Party would help their political force to have more influential role in the political life of Armenia, move towards to real democracy, protection of human rights and justice.

On the same day representatives of the Dashnaktsutiun faction Vahan Hovhannisyan and Armen Rustamyan also met the Vice Chairman of the European People’s Party Group in the European Parliament. The Head of the ARF faction Vahan Hovhannisyan highlighted the deepening of the inter-party relations, noting that a number of Armenian political forces, including the ARF, applied to the European families for membership. He is sure that the EU member parties are able to understand the peculiarities of the parties close to them in small countries. The head of the faction also touched upon the works of the Euronest PA, where by representation the biggest is the European People’s Party. Mr Hovhannisyan expressed hope that the latter’s prestige and influence would prevent the possible negative procedure, in order that Parliamentary Assembly would not become an arena of mutual accusations of the Eastern partners. “We have such fear seeing Azerbaijan’s behaviour. Our intention is that the Euronest would not only become a venue of the discussion of conflicts,” Vahan Hovhannsiyan concluded.

Jaime Mayor Oreja emphasized on the path of the implementation of the reforms them being real, their target, the simplification of the political processes, the people’s support and the cooperation of the political forces in this issue.

The representatives of the parliamentary political forces representing the coalition also met with the Vice Chairman the European People’s Party Group in the European Parliament Jaime Mayor Oreja.

The member of the Prosperous Armenia faction Naira Zohrabyan, sharing the ideology of the European People’s Party of having united and strong Europe in its diversity, noted that the Prosperous Armenia Party applied to the EPP to join it, and considerable steps have been taken in that direction. In particular, in the last PAP congress certain changes have been made in the statute of the party to make it more consonant to the EPP Statute. By Mrs Zohrabyan’s assessment, if in some neighbouring states the Euro integration is an imitation process, then Armenia is the bearer of the European value system, so she believes in Armenia’s European success to the EU political association and economic integration. Speaking about the regional problems the Chairwoman of the Committee on European Integration noted that the EU should make stricter its requirements proposed to Turkey that expressed wish to join that structure. The EPP Vice Chairman Oreja also finds that Armenia’s integration can be easy, as they adhere the same European Christian values, there are many common and uniting edges. Instead, speaking about making stricter the standards to joining the EU, Orejan didn’t consider possible Turkey’s joining to the EU in present conditions. In case of Armenia the next important precondition shall be the democratic reforms.

The member of the Country of Law faction Khachik Harutyunyan once agin documented that Armenian saw its future in the European family. During these years the party worked to promote the rapprochement of the relations with the European structures, the deputy said and added that the head of his party, the Secretary of the National Security Council, also coordinated the works with the European Union. Khachik Harutyunyan considered the effective cooperation with the European partners an important step on the path of the European integration. During the talk the secretary of the Prosperous Armenia touched upon the cooperation with the EPP and the European Movement, the changes made and to be made in the programmes of the party, which underscored the adherence of their party to European values.

The interlocutors also talked about the cooperation in the international organizations and expressed hope, continuing the cooperation, to more develop and make closer the relations.