EU- Parliamentary Cooperation Committee

TWELFTH MEETING

2-3 November 2011

Yerevan

Final Statement and Recommendations

pursuant to Article 83 of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement

Under the co-chairmanship of Mr Milan CABRNOCH (European Conservatives and Reformists Group) and Mrs Naira ZOHRABYAN (Prosperous Armenia Party), the twelfth meeting of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee was held in on 2-3 November 2011. The Committee exchanged views with Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Zohrab MNATSAKANYAN, representing the Government of the Republic of Armenia and Mr Onno SIMONS, Head of the Political, Economic, Press and Information Section of the EU Delegation to Armenia, representing the European Union.

The Parliamentary Cooperation Committee

1. welcomes the intensification of Armenia-EU relations over the last years and the opening of ambitious perspectives for cooperation in the political, economic, cultural and other fields;

2. salutes President Sargsyan's declaration of 18 December 2010 on the need for persistent adaptation to European standards in all areas of Armenia's political, social and economic and social lives, with no exemptions or reservations;

3. recognises that this presupposes inter alia significant acceleration of Armenia's implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) Action Plan, in particular in relation to judicial independence, reform of the police and media pluralism, major concrete results in the fight against corruption, as well as parliamentary and presidential elections, in 2012 and 2013 respectively, which are free and fair and perceived as such by the Armenian people1;

4. welcomes the resolution on the functioning of democratic institutions in Armenia adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the on 5 October 20112 and considers that it correctly identifies challenges and provides good guidance for further reform efforts;

1 The Parliamentary Cooperation Committee notes President Sargsyan's statement before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in June 2011 that the elections must not only be free and fair, but also perceived in that way. 2 http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Doc/ATListingDetails_E.asp?ATID=11370

RC\EN.doc 1 PE 467.632 5. regrets that the hope of a normalisation of the political climate raised by the attempts to establish a dialogue between the governing coalition and the extra-parliamentary opposition have not been fulfilled, that the dialogue was soon interrupted and that it was not accompanied by a dialogue between the governing coalition and the parliamentary opposition; considers that such dialogues remain necessary and that new attempts should be made;

6. fully supports the Eastern Partnership and the main objectives of the review of the European Neighbourhood Policy, which include making a clear and strong link between the EU's offer to each partner country and the rate of progress in reforms in the respective country (the "more for more" principle);

7. notes the European Commission's proposal for a substantial increase in the funding for the European Neighbourhood Policy;

8. welcomes the launch of negotiations on an EU-Armenia Association Agreement and notes with satisfaction the progress made; hopes for early opening of negotiations on an EU- Armenia Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA); welcomes the launch of the Comprehensive Institution-Building (CIB) program;

9. takes note of the European Commission proposal to open negotiations on visa facilitation and readmission agreements with Armenia and encourages the EU Council to adopt the negotiation directives without unnecessary delay, with a view to opening of negotiations by the end of 2011;

10. welcomes the activities of the EU Advisory Group in the Republic of Armenia with the aim of facilitating effective implementation of key priorities of the ENP Action Plan;

11. agrees on the importance of the human rights dialogue between Armenia and the EU being results-oriented and focused inter alia on the combat of torture and ill-treatment and on improvement of prison conditions;

12. calls on the EU to cover and prioritise the parliamentary dimension of the Eastern Partnership in the framework of the Comprehensive Institution-building programme, assisting both technically and financially Eastern Partners’ parliaments to fully develop their constitutional functions, bodies and services including a dialogue with civil society;

13. supports the Professional Educational Quality Assurance strategic plan 2010-2015 developed in the context of the Bologna Process; calls on the European Commission to assist Eastern Partners both technically and financially in the approximation of standards to the European Higher Education Area and Higher Education Diplomas in order to facilitate their short-term integration in this area;

14. welcomes Armenia’s willingness to “stress test” the Medzamor Nuclear Power Plant in line with EU standards; encourages Armenia to intensify its efforts to increase energy efficiency and develop renewable energy sources and welcomes the current work on an action plan for this; takes note that Armenia was accepted as an observer to the Energy Community Treaty in October 2011;

15. notes with satisfaction Armenia’s active engagement in the Eastern Partnership; stresses the importance of the multilateral track of the EaP and that the potential benefits of inclusive regional cooperation are huge;

RC\EN.doc 2 PE 467.632 16. welcomes Armenia’s constructive contribution to the establishment of the EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly;

17. welcomes the re-creation of the post of EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the appointment of Mr LEFORT as EUSR for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia;

18. supports the set of principles, without exception, presented by the Presidents of the Minsk Co-Chair Countries: , the USA and Russia, in their 2009 L’Aquila and 2010 Muskoka joint statements, which were favourably received by the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities; also fully supports the Deauville statement of 26 May 2011 of the three presidents which calls on all the parties to the conflict to take a decisive stop towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict, deplores the unacceptable status quo, condemns the use of force and insists on the necessity of preparing the populations for peace;

19. agrees with the Minsk Co-Chairs statement, on 17 July 2010, that any attempt to select some elements of the Basic Principles over others would make it impossible to achieve a balanced solution;

20. welcomes the EU's intention to increase its support for a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; points to the great importance of avoiding inflammatory statements in general and bellicose statements in particular and resolutely distances itself from every such statement, emphasises that an attempt at conflict resolution by force would be catastrophic;

21. deplores the non-ratification of the two Armenian-Turkish protocols, signed in 2009, on establishment of diplomatic relations, opening of the shared border (which has been closed by Turkey) and development of cooperation; stresses that the Armenian-Turkey normalisation process and the OSCE Minsk Group negotiations are separate processes that should move forward along their own rationales; notes, however, that progress in one of the two processes could have wide-ranging, potentially very positive consequences in the region as a whole.

Adopted on 3 November 2011

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