ArmInfo.On March 22, the Armenian government approved a bill on ratification of the signed on November 24, 2017 between the Republic of Armenia, on the one hand, and the European Union and the European Community of Atomic Energy (Euratom), on the other, the Agreement on Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership.
As Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharian stated, presenting the document, the new framework agreement is important because it raises Armenia-EU bilateral relations to a new, partner level and is called upon to regulate them within the coming years. This agreement is more extensive, and brought into line with the essence and depth of bilateral relations.
The provisions of the agreement, as the Deputy Foreign Minister noted, are in line with the commitments made by Armenia in the framework of other integration formats. "The comprehensive and expanded partnership agreement that Armenia signed with the EU in November 2017 will fully enter into force after the last EU state has informed of the completion of the internal procedures." So far, only Estonia has completed all ratification procedures, "Kocharian said. At the same time, as the deputy minister pointed out, Armenia received EU notifications that for the temporary application of certain provisions of the Agreement, the European side completed the internal procedures without waiting for final ratification. "However, for this it is necessary for Armenia to complete the ratification procedure," Kocharyan explained.
Recall that on March 19 this year. head of the permanent parliamentary commission for foreign affairs Armen Ashotyan said that the agreement between Armenia and the EU is likely to be ratified by Armenia during the next four-day sittings in Parliament. "During the next meeting in the Parliament we will deal with this issue, I can not exactly name the terms, but I assure you that the Agreement will be ratified in April," Ashotyan said. Earlier, the deputy head of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighborhood Policy and Negotiations on Expansion (DG NEAR) Katarina Maternova said she sees no serious obstacles to ratifying the Agreement on Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership between the European Union and Armenia.
"I do not know whether the agreement will be ratified this year, but I do not see any serious obstacles," she said. According to the representative of the European Commission, ratification will not become difficult, as was the case with Ukraine. "Then there was a referendum in the Netherlands, which slowed down this process, and it was a much deeper agreement," explained Katerina Maternova. On November 24, Armenia signed the Agreement on Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership with the EU on the sidelines of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels. The agreement will come into force after ratification by the parliaments of Armenia and 28 EU member states. The accent in the extensive 357- page document is put on the affirmation of justice, freedom, security in Armenia; reforming the Constitution and the judiciary; observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, etc. And all this with the active participation of the European Union in financing various projects in Armenia.