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A delegation led by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan attended yesterday, on January 18, the 16th meeting of Armenia-EU Cooperation Council in Brussels, according to the press service of Armenian Foreign Ministry.

The EU delegation was led by Bert Koenders, Foreign Minister of the Netherlands holding the EU Presidency, and Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
   
The Armenian delegation was composed of Armenian Ambassador to the EU Tatul Margaryan, First Deputy Minister of Economy Garegin Melkonyan, and Deputy Justice Minister Vigen Kocharyan.

The measures aimed at further development of Armenia-EU cooperation such as issues of the political dialog, the future legal framework, mobility, human rights, economic reforms and the EU’s assistance to Armenia were discussed at the meeting presided over by E. Nalbandyan. 

Minister Nalbandyan said in his opening remarks:

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

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 was 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 to 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”.

In their speeches, Armenia’ s deputy ministers of justice and economy spoke about the economic policy of the government, reforms in the legal system and the results of cooperation with the EU in those fields in 2015.