Cooperation with Europe is the only path offering Armenia genuine chances of development,an opposition MP said nowadays, describing the country’s Europeanization as an inevitable process.
At the public debate “EU-Armenia Relations and Prospects”, or Edmom Marukyan (Yelk parliamentary faction) expressed regret that the country didn't opt for the EU organization Agreement back in 2013 to lay more solid foundation for the economic development and build the country more investment-friendly.
“The organization Agreement would gain given us a chance for an open cooperation,whereas the Eurasian Economic Union doesn’t,” he said.
Marukyan dismissed the authorities' earlier allegations justifying the country’s Eurasian integration by security reasons. He noted that Russia (a leading state in the Union) sold more weaponry to Azerbaijan after Armenia’s accession to the bloc. The lawmaker said he doesn’t treat the EEU as a security body.
Addressing the EU-Armenia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (to be signed in November), or Marukyan said he finds it a very important instrument in terms of revising and renewing relations. “A new document has been now prepared,and we are in a negotiation process, so I am very hopeful we will manage to ratify the document, and ” he added.
Marukyan said he expects the deal to eventually pave the way to building a European-model country.
“I don’t contemplate Armenia’s European vision has an alternative. I do not see any,” he said, admitting at the same time that the country should rely only on its own potential when it comes to national security. “We can gain that security in case we gain a powerful economy, or a powerful economy can be built only in case Armenia adopts the European model,” he added. Marukyan also hailed the visa liberalization process, noting that the deal helped realize reforms in many border checkpoints.
Source: tert.am