Tuesday, January 22 2019 18:16

ArmInfo. Romania, within the framework of its presidency in the European Union, would like to adopt a political declaration on the future prospects of the Eastern  Partnership and identify specific projects for development, said the  head of the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Theodore Meleshkanu, on  January 22.According to RIA "Novosti", Romania has become for six  months the EU presidency. 

Earlier, Bucharest said that one of the priorities during its  chairmanship will be relations with the countries of the Eastern  Partnership."There will be two important directions for us. We would  be happy, firstly, to implement, following the results of the  ministerial meeting to be held in Brussels on the Eastern  Partnership, a kind of political statement and look at the future of  the Eastern Partnership policy in the future. to assess what has  already been done, the importance of the EU's contribution to our  partners. We believe that at the moment we need to look into the  future of the Eastern Partnership and try to focus on specific  cooperation projects, "he said at an event in Brussels ."We firmly  hold the view that our Eastern partners make an important  contribution to the EU's security.

 Therefore, it will be our priority to determine the projects that  will be funded to send a signal about the seriousness of our  relations," the minister said.Earlier, ArmInfo, citing the report of  the European Commission, reported that the European Union would  provide Armenia with a loan of more than 700 million euros for the  implementation of infrastructure projects. The report notes that the  credit resources allocated to Armenia will become part of the EU's  general assistance to countries participating in the Eastern  Partnership program - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova  and Belarus. The total budget of the program, which will be funded  jointly by the European Union and the World Bank, will be 13 billion  euros. 

The project involves the construction of roads and railways with a  total length of 4,800 kilometers, as well as the development of  ports, airports, logistics centers and checkpoints. Brussels believes  that the development of infrastructure in the Eastern Partnership  countries - Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine - will  contribute to economic growth in these countries and the creation of  new jobs.  Completion of some projects is planned already in 2020,  and some - only by 2030.To note, earlier in Yerevan, directions for  financing have already been outlined. Among the priority projects, in  particular, was the reconstruction of the Artashat-Agarak highway,  which is part of the construction of the North- South transport  corridor. 

The EU is expected to provide 450 million euros for this project.  Until 2030, the main tasks are the program to modernize the  Yerevan-Vanadzor highway, which costs 7.5 million euros, reconstruct  the Gyumri-Bavr road - 41 million euros, and build a new border  checkpoint in Meghri - 15 million euros.  We also recall that at the  Eastern Partnership Summit in 2017, six member states of the program  were included in the Trans-European Transport Network, a large-scale  project whose goal is to improve the transport system of the European  Union and its neighbors.The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a program of  the European Union, launched in Paris in 2009. The idea of the  project was presented by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.  The EAP sets itself the main task - the development of EU relations  with the six countries of the former Soviet Union: Azerbaijan,  Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.  Armenia in 2017 at  the summit in Brussels signed an agreement on a comprehensive and  expanded partnership with the EU.