– Mr. Simons, the Eastern Partnership project was launched in May 2009. What do you think about the project implementation during the past year, what achievements and failures have there been?
– The main achievement of the eastern Partnership project in Armenia is the EU’s decision adopted in the beginning of May to start negotiations with Armenia on July 19 for the purpose of making an associated agreement between the two sides. This agreement will deepen the cooperation between Armenia and the EU. As soon as Armenia fulfills the preconditions, it will be possible to start negotiating on the establishment of a deeper and larger free trade zone. The free trade agreement will open the doors of the European markets for Armenian goods. The other component according to this agreement is the free movement right for people through easier provision of entry visas. Armenia has participated in various meetings of experts. It helped the participant countries to get more experience, and activated the contact between them as well. The Eastern Partnership is also targeted at activation of regional cooperation. However in consideration of the difficult situation in the Caucasian region there is not so much improvement in this context than we would like it to be.
– Even though in the recent times it is more spoken about the Eastern Partnership project, but the New Neighborhood project is more integral in the relations with Armenia. What do you think about the success of this project? How closer has Armenia approached Europe as a result of the NNP?
– The Eastern Partnership contributes and develops the European Neighborhood Policy toward the regions in the East from the EU. As a result of the New Neighborhood Policy during the past 5 years the EU made more trade with its neighbors, helped the neighbors more, developed the human contacts and supported closer cooperation between the EU and its neighbors throughout their political, economic and civic reforms. Our cooperation has significantly grown in sectors such as transportation, energy, environmental protection and climate change, scientific researches, healthcare and education. These improvements were followed by growth of financial support to all these countries which reached 32%. For instance, the EU and the European bank for Reconstruction and Development have provided financial support for reconstructing the underground of Yerevan. The EU has also provided financial support for the research on improving the Yerevan-Tbilisi railway.
– During May the European Commission and European parliament adopted a resolution and report on the regulation of the conflict of Nagorno Karabakh. These documents got a negative feedback from Armenia. Do you think that this may have impact on the New Neighborhood and Eastern partnership projects?
– Recently the European Parliament adopted a resolution and report on the necessity of EU strategy in Caucasus. This report is known as Kirilov’s report. This resolution is not binding for the European Commission and Council of Europe; it should be accepted as an advice for these European institutions. This resolution became a topic of discussion in Armenia concerning the issue of Karabakh but I would not call it negative. Anyway the parliament is an independent body. It collects information through hearings, researches and documents, as well as lobbying. I think it became clear to many Armenians that it is very important to represent Armenia’s opinion in Brussels effectively as it is done by other interested parties. It is worth mentioning that the resolution and report show that the interest toward South Caucasus is growing. It is a positive development, which can support the growing interest of the European parliament.