Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the framework of the 16th session of Armenia-EU Cooperation Council, together with our EU colleagues, we have had extensive discussions on the further development of Armenia – European Union relations, which included such issues as: political dialogue, negotiations on a new framework agreement between Armenia and the EU, mobility, human rights, pace of reforms and others.

2015 was a special year for the Armenia-EU cooperation. We witnessed an intense and constructive dialogue with a number of bilateral meetings, negotiations on Armenia - EU agreements in various areas.

The Eastern Partnership summit in Riga in May 2015 was a success with Joint Declaration reaffirming our shared vision of the Partnership based on mutual interests and commitments, supporting sustained reform processes in partner countries and highlighting the main directions for the further development and strengthening of comprehensive cooperation in all areas of mutual interest.

Armenia welcomed the European Neighborhood Policy review process. We highly appreciated the EU initiative to engage the partner countries in this process. We are pleased to note that the EU Council endorsed the principle of differentiation to be applied to the partners, taking into account the progress made in implementation of their commitments and reforms.

We expressed our appreciation to the EU for its continued support and assistance provided to our country over the years which have been instrumental for the effective implementation and sustainability of the reform process and institutional capacity building in Armenia.

Last month’s launch of the negotiations on a new legal framework of Armenia – EU relations is a new threshold in our relations. We hope that the new agreement will reflect the depth and essence of our bilateral relations and set new guidelines for mutually beneficial cooperation.

Based on shared values, Armenia is interested in working with the EU on the continuous promotion of human rights and rule of law, consolidation of democratic institutions and improvement of judiciary, good governance, fight against corruption, strengthening the civil society. We are thankful to the EU for its valuable support in this regard.

Constitutional reform in Armenia that the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe characterized as of “extremely high quality” and “in line with international standards”, was approved by the nation-wide referendum last December. This is another important step also aimed at advancing many of the mentioned goals.

We attach great importance to people-to-people contacts, and view enhanced mobility of our citizens as an important prerequisite for bringing our societies closer. It is almost two years now that the EU-Armenia Visa Facilitation and Readmission agreements are being implemented. We believe that time has come to move forward towards the Dialogue on Visa liberalization as it is enshrined in Joint Declaration of Eastern Partnership Riga Summit.

I have presented to our European colleagues the worldwide events on Armenian Genocide Centennial, which we marked last year. And I used this opportunity to express our gratitude to the European Parliament, EU countries for their principled position on this issue.

I have informed about Armenia’s active engagement in efforts of international community on prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity. We thank the EU countries for supporting the Armenian initiatives within the UN.

I briefed the Council on latest developments of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and in particular on the results of the meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Bern. Regrettably, the situation on the line of contact between Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia - Azerbaijan border has seriously aggravated since the last time we met in this format. The last year witnessed considerable rise in the cease-fire violations by Azerbaijan, which caused significantly high number of casualties, including civilians.

The Co-Chairs directly called on Azerbaijan for restraint, full respect of the ceasefire agreement, observe its commitments to the peaceful resolution of the conflict, and further engagement in the Co-Chairmanship lead negotiations. Armenia will continue joint efforts with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, aimed at the exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

We also touched upon regional security issues and other topics of international agenda.

And I would like to thank Minister Koenders and Commissioner Hahn for the successful Council meeting.

Thank you.