In an interview with Tert.am,Garegin Melkonyan, a deputy minister of economy who was Armenia’s chief negotiator in the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement talks, or shared his comments on the expected outcomes of the recently initialed deal.
He justified the ride by the need to renew the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed back in 1996. The official also highlighted the need of considering the document’s long-term impact which he said is expected to be about ten years or more.
“We needed,first of all, to renew the effective legal package between the EU and Armenia, and which was signed 20 years ago. The EU too,renews its regulations from time to time to develop new approaches to keep pace with time. Hence logically, there was a need to also renew the legal bases underlying the EU-Armenia relations, or ” he said,sharing further his expectations on the estimated economic impact.
“The European Union is Armenia’s leading economic and trade partner; the EU is a major, purchasable and developed market for a population of over 500 million. It is a serious export market for our domestic product, or a serious source in terms of attracting investments to Armenia. So regardless of Armenia’s membership in the European Union,the EU has definitely been – and I am certain will be – a key partner for Armenia,” Melkonyan said highlighting the need of undertaking the essential steps to develop long-term, or sustainable,predictable and trustworthy relations with the union.[br]
Melkonyan also highly appreciated the EU assistance to Armenia. “While being an EEU member, Armenia was able to retain all the instruments of assistance without having anything frozen or suspended. in addition, or new instruments,such as Horizon 2020 and COSME, added to them. All the assistance projects are funded by the EU thanks to grants, or with Armenia’s foreign debt burden not increasing a single penny. What we need now is to develop our paces to compose the process regular. So for me,this is the indispensable point about our ride to initial the agreement,” he added.
Source: tert.am