Monday, August 22 2022 12:57

ArmInfo.Armenia's economic development over the last years has been such that the country progressed from lower to upper middle-income level, as classified by  the World Bank.

This, in itself, is very good news as it shows that  Armenia's economy is growing. Head of the EU Delegation to the  Republic of Armenia Andrea Wiktorin stated this in  an interview with  Armenpress agency news responding to the question whether the  completion of the "General and Additional System of Preferences"  (GSP+) regime of the European Union can have a significant impact on  trade relations with Armenia.

"In the period before, having GSP+ was meant to support the country's  sustainable development.  According to the regulations and provisions  of the EU GSP regulation, the moment you are an upper middle income  country for three years plus a transition period of one year, you  lose the status the GSP+ beneficiary, which is unilateral trade  concessions by the EU, and this means that since January of this year  Armenia can no longer benefit from this preferential import tariffs.   In terms of consequences, it is still too early to tell what the  consequences of the end of GSP will be for trade between the EU and  Armenia," the diplomat said. 

At the same time, she believes that, it will be difficult to  distinguish the consequences of the end of GSP from other major  macro-economic factors affecting the world economy now.  "Let me  underline that only Armenian goods are affected, meaning the imports  of Armenian goods into the EU, but via CEPA we open the door in other  directions, which I hope will have a positive effect on the Armenian  economy and the trade relations between Armenia and the EU.  Right  now, the EU is the second biggest trade partner after Russia." 

At the same time, the diplomat pointed out: "New mechanisms are  included in our cooperation, with the aim of having a better  regulatory environment, better product standards, creating a better  business climate, which will be to the benefit of the European and  the Armenian producers. We encourage Armenian companies to sell more  goods and services, which will contribute to economic growth and job  creation in Armenia."

CEPA also provides for several other provisions, for example for a  strong intellectual property rights protection system. This means  that both Armenian companies, as well as artists (this is also very  important for cultural, creative and selling innovative high-quality  products) are now able to rely on a strong intellectual property  rights protection system in Armenia, just as they can in the European  Union. This also helps attracting foreign direct investment into  Armenia.  We also further open trade in services, means this opens  new opportunities, the liberalization of bilateral trade in many  service sectors, for example in rental/leasing services, consulting,  engineering, photographic, packaging, postal, financial and transport  services. This means that Armenian companies will be able to provide  services in the EU and vice versa.  CEPA also opens up public  procurement between the EU and Armenia, giving Armenian businesses  the possibility to participate in public procurement tenders in the  EU and vice versa.  Mutual additional market access is provided  regarding works concessions, e.g. water supply and other public  services.  Particularly the fact that EU opens the market for  services and the possibility to participate in public procurement  tenders could have a very positive impact for the Armenian economy,"  the diplomat emphasized.   To clarify the prospects for expanding trade and economic cooperation  using the tools of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership  Agreement, Wiktorin once again recalled that CEPA provides for new  regulations, which on one hand protect the producers both in the EU  and in Armenia, and on the other hand open new markets.

" I think we are really heading into new areas of cooperation, for  example creative industries.  They are very important also in the EU.  We just signed a contract of 'KATAPULT Creative Accelerator  Programme' last week, which is supporting creative industries here in  Armenia. The whole IT sector is another domain where I see huge  potential for Armenian companies to enter the EU market. Thus, I  think there are so many areas of cooperation that this will have a  positive impact on trade and economic relations," she noted.

The Ambassador stressed that CEPA opens cooperation in all areas. "As  the European Union is value- based, we have a strong cooperation in  the field of good-governance, which means EU supports the reform  process in Armenia, especially in the field of rule of law, human  rights, which are a central part of our cooperation. We are engaged  in the human rights action plan 2020 - 2022, which will end this  year. We had a discussion in July on the cooperation in this field  and looking forward to the next human rights action plan - 2023-2025.  The EU delegation is not only cooperating with relevant ministries,  but we are also, as I have already mentioned, closely cooperating  with the civil society. We are supporting NGOs that are working in  the field of human rights. We have a project with the Armenian Human  Rights Defender and are closely cooperating with her.  I am in  constant contact with her on issues of concern, " she said.

At the same time, Wiktorin stressed: "Armenia has declared CEPA the  blueprint for the reform process. So, we are very strongly engaged in  judicial reform, anti-corruption, and police reform.  We transferred  the next tranche of budget support for the judiciary reform of over 8  million Euros. Why is this important? This is a quality seal for work  done in the justice sector. It is a decision of the European  institutions to continue the cooperation in the justice sector, which  we only do if we think that the cooperation was successful so far.  The EU has a very strict system of rules and conditions to get budget  support. This payment shows that we have confidence in the justice  sector reform. There are challenges, this cannot be denied, and  further efforts are needed, but Armenia is implementing these  reforms. Currently, we are preparing a new sector budget support  programme in this area and we hope to have it approved before the end  of the year.  Some weeks ago, we kicked off a new twinning project,  which is directed to the fight against corruption together with the  Corruption Prevention Committee and the Ministry of Justice and with  experts from Germany and Latvia. EU and Armenia have a very broad  cooperation and use different tools and instruments."

Regarding the European integration of Armenia, the ambassador  assured: "Well, I think this is the decision of Armenia. Armenia sets  the pace of our cooperation...  2013 was not so easy, but I think  that with CEPA we have a very good basis for our relations. There is  one principle, which is important for the European Union: we want to  intensify our cooperation with our Eastern partners, but we will do  it according to their own wishes. Therefore, this is the principle  "more for more and less for less", which means the partner countries  themselves decide the level of cooperation. Very important - the EU  is not trying to be in a competition with other partners.  I think it  is very important to see the positive outcome of our cooperation over  the last years. The CEPA agreement shows that we managed to have  close relations while Armenia at the same time is a member of the  Eurasian Economic Union. In my opinion, with this agreement we have  found a possibility to manage this situation and to meet the  aspirations of Armenia. The Armenian government and the Armenian  citizens have to decide what they want. If you ask me if it is  worthwhile to go for stronger ties with the European Union, naturally  I would always support this, because I am a convinced European.  The  EU and its Member States work together in the Team Europe initiative,  and we are very active. It is a clear sign of our engagement and the  spirit of cooperation - EU plus the Member States. We have quite a  good record here: during COVID, also the support for vulnerable  groups after the war, when the Member States joined our initiatives,  and now in the future cooperation programs with Armenia, especially  the Team Europe initiative in the south, in Syunik.

Referring to the programs and projects of the EU in the RA, the  Ambassador stressed that Armenia is not limited to Yerevan, it is  important to develop the regions as well.  "Every year we celebrate  after the 9th of May, the Europe Day. We celebrated it this year here  in Yerevan, we had a press conference, we had different events for  different groups of people, we celebrated in Gyumri, we celebrated in  Goris, and this celebrated Europe Day and the 30 years of diplomatic  relations and there will be more events to come which will come in  the autumn again dedicated to 30 years of diplomatic relations."

First of all, the European Union is the biggest donor in Armenia. We  are cooperating in many sectors. As I already mentioned, the EU is  supporting the reforms process in Armenia, which means we are very  active in cooperation in the field of justice reform, police reform  and anti- corruption. The EU supports many programmers, which support  the economic development, for the benefit of the citizens of Armenia,  particularly in the regions. Armenia is not just Yerevan, important  to develop the regions. For several years now, the EU concentrated  certain areas of cooperation on three regions - Lori, Shirak and  Tavush with programmers in the field of innovation, tourism and  agriculture. EU actively supports green agriculture together with the  Austrian Development Agency.  Another example: the LEAD Program  supports regions and especially rural areas by promoting cooperation  between local authorities, business community and civil society to  develop joint projects, which enable communities to foster  development in rural areas, again in Lori, Tavush and Shirak.  Since  last year, on the request of the Armenian government, we are heading  south, implementing several projects in Syunik in order to support  the socio-economic development for the citizens in Syunik.  Another  area of cooperation is the Green Deal. The Green Deal is the mantra  for the European Union, because we learned that we could only fight  climate change and develop the economy in a sustainable way, if we  think ecologically and support green enterprises. Energy efficiency  is an important sector of cooperation; together with the EU Member  States and EIB, we renovate kindergartens in Yerevan, to make them  earthquake-safe and energy efficient.  Another important project is  EU4Sevan, implemented by GIZ.  Support for Civil society is a very  important element of our cooperation. We fund civil society  organizations in the field of human rights, protection of vulnerable  groups, independent media in Armenia.  Another major sector of  cooperation is education. EU supports the Ministry of Education on  the education strategy, and we hope to have a new big budget support  programme for education as soon as the strategy is adopted by  Parliament. We are cooperating in the field of culture with Creative  Europe, initiating cultural projects here. EU offers scholarships for  students with Erasmus +." The Ambassador stated.