The Seventh Armenia-EU Cooperation Council took place on the morning of November 14 in Brussels. During this meeting, the European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan was adopted and entered into force.

The Armenian delegation was headed by the Cooperation Council's Armenian Co-Chairman Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. The European side was represented by the Finnish Minister of Trade and Development, representing the EU Presidency, Germany's State Minister representing the upcoming German Presidency of the EU, EU Special Representative in the South Caucasus and high-level European Commission representatives.

The Finnish Trade Minister, Paula Lehtomaeki, opened the Council session by welcoming the Armenian delegation, expressing appreciation of the work done by the Armenian side in completing the Action Plan, and stating their readiness to move to implementation.

Minister Oskanian thanked the Finnish Presidency and the Commission for their persistence in completing the Action Plan process. He said this is truly a different document, with five distinctive elements. He said, "It elevates the level of the relationship to a new qualitative level; it is not a document of intentions, but a document of action, because it is project-oriented; it reinforces our reform processes, and as we've always said, reforms are our only assets, because our development depends not on natural resources but human resources, and therefore we need to provide the necessary conditions to develop that resource; further, it allows us to go beyond cooperation and towards integration in certain areas; finally, it will be a bottom-up process, and just as we involved NGOs and civil society in the preparation of the document, so we will involve them now in the implementation phase, since the nature of the document and projects compels us to make this a bottom-up process."

The Council participants proceeded with the agenda items which included political issues, internal reforms, human rights issues and energy concerns. The Armenian side explained Armenia's policy of energy diversification and particularly, the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline.

The Council meeting was followed by the signing of a memorandum recommending the adoption of the European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan. Armenia's Foreign Minister and the Finnish Trade Minister participated in the signing.

The implementation process will provide an opportunity for deeper integration, including in the EU internal markets. The Action Plan proposes closer political, security, economic and cultural relations with the EU. In the process of implementation, Armenia's social, political and economic systems will begin to resemble European systems. The Action Plan assumes greater financial assistance, a deepening of trade and economic relations, the harmonization of economic legislation, continuing reduction of tariff limitations. To provide aid and support in all these directions, a new European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument will provide, on the average, 25 million Euros annually during the five years of the agreement. This support will also be directed at cross-border and regional cooperation.

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Armenia-EU, European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan
(English Version)
(Armenian Version)