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European Council President Herman Van Rompuy highlighted the following three points after his meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan:

“First, We are experiencing overall progress in the EU-Armenia relationship. There has been progress in the negotiations on the Association Agreement. And, we have started negotiations on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. Moreover, in February of this year, negotiations were launched on Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements, as a first step towards visa liberalisation.

Second, I welcome Armenia’s commitment to reforms based on the core values for the European Union, and geared towards approximating to the standards and norms of the EU. This is clearly a strategic choice by Armenia.

I encourage Armenia to continue on this path towards strengthening its democratic institutions, to promote transparency, to root out corruption and to respect Human Rights and the rule of law, including the right to free speech and press. You are, President Sargsyan, on the right track, even if there is still a lot of work ahead.”

Herman Van Rompuy announced that the EU has decided to top up its annual support to Armenia by 15 million euros for 2012 under the Eastern Partnership Integration and Cooperation (EaPIC). “This is an increase of 25 % of the EU’s financial assistance to Armenia,” he said.

According to him, the European Union welcomes the efforts which the Armenian authorities made to deliver more competitive and transparent parliamentary elections. “This was an important step forward. However, as identified in the Final Report by the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, some issues remain to be addressed. We trust that this will be done before the upcoming Presidential elections.”