French Ambassador: Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Expanded Partnership  Agreement (ACPA) aimed at strengthening cooperation between Armenia  and EU and opens new possibilities for sectoral cooperation

ArmInfo. The stage of approval  of the Armenia-EU comprehensive and expanded partnership agreement at the government level has already come to an end and it is preparing to be sent to the country's parliament for final  ratification. French Ambassador to Armenia Jonathan Lacote said at a  press conference in Yerevan on July 12, answering the question of  ArmInfo, whether the date of Paris's ratification of the ACPA is  known.

At the same time, he recalled that the French parliament consists of  two chambers and the document must go through all stages of approval.  At the same time, Lacote stressed that ACPA is aimed at strengthening  cooperation between Armenia and the EU, and opens new opportunities  for sectoral cooperation.

Answering a question about whether the change of power in Armenia  will affect the process of liberalization of the visa regime for RA  citizens, the French ambassador stated that, undoubtedly, the  processes taking place in the country give a new dynamic to relations  with Europe. "Implementation of important ACPA points, which was  signed last fall, has started already on June 1, 2011. Of course,  among them is the point on mobility and facilitation of  people-to-people contacts, however, in order for the visa regime to  be liberalized for Armenia I hope that the dialogue will begin when  Europe is fully confident that Armenia has fulfilled all the points  of the commitments made earlier, "he said.

The ambassador also informed that next week in Armenia there would be  a group from the French agency on asylum issues, which will come to  Yerevan with the purpose to get acquainted with the situation  prevailing in the country on the spot. According to him, this will  allow later, when considering the applications of Armenian citizens  to have a more complete picture and make a more objective decision.   Lacote  stated that France wants to avoid any manifestations caused  by the illegal presence of Armenian citizens in the territory of the  French Republic.