Armenian National Assembly President Alen Simonyan delivered welcome speech at the opening of 4th Meeting of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Partnership Committee. In his speech, handed by the Press office of Armenian Parliament, Simonyan said:
I would also like to congratulate you on the European Parliament elections held last year and on your participation in the first meeting of this Committee with new members. I am sure that we will have even closer and more effective cooperation in the near future, as there is a strong political will and the demand of our society. I would also like to express my gratitude, on your behalf, to all the Members of the European Parliament who have followed the processes taking place in the region over the years, the challenges facing Armenia, heeded our alarms, and in the reports and speeches adopted by the European Parliament have condemned the destructive war unleashed by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, the forced displacement of more than 100,000 Armenians, the occupation of the sovereign territory of Armenia, the gross violations of human rights, the fact of captives being held in Azerbaijan, and the vandalism committed against Armenian cultural and religious heritage.
Unfortunately, all those responses were not enough, and international humanitarian law was defeated in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Dear colleagues,
We have opened a new page in our history. Armenia has chosen the path of democratic development, as it stands at the origins of the value system of European civilization and steadfastly continues to reinforce democracy and the policy of protecting and strengthening its country with its own forces. We realize that this is a very difficult and dangerous path.
The current situation in the world and the rapidly changing reality force us to be open-minded and make the right decisions, no matter how difficult they may be.
Being at the crossroads of civilizations, we attach great importance to normal relations with neighbouring states and strive to establish relations in the region with open borders and based on partnership. The Armenian Government has come up with the Crossroads of Peace project, which refers to making transportation and communication routes of our region more efficient, based on the principles of sovereignty, equality of states, territorial integrity and reciprocity. We are trying to pursue a balanced policy with the countries and power centres of the region, the basis of which is the diversification of security, economy, energy and other spheres.
We are also expanding the cooperation with the European Union member states in most various areas.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the significant financial support provided by the European Union, which is aimed at the reforms taking place in Armenia and a number of landmark initiatives. All this is taking place within the framework of the deepening and new agenda-setting Armenia-European Union cooperation. The vivid proof of this is a number of important events that have taken place in the last few months. The dialogue on visa liberalisation was launched, Armenia was included in the European Peace Facility programme, the European Union extended the period of presence of its civilian mission at the borders of Armenia for another 2 years, which clearly and significantly reduced the number of incidents at the border and prevented the risks of possible escalation. And finally, a few days ago, on February 12, the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia adopted in the first reading the law On the Launch of the Accession Process of the Republic of Armenia to the European Union, which is a real manifestation of the determination of our citizens who aspire to become part of the European community.
