From March 31 to April 1, in Brussels, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Paruyr Hovhannisian had meetings with European Union high-ranking officials, including Acting Director-General of the DG NEAR Maciej Popowski, Member of the European Parliament Isabel Santos, Deputy Managing Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Luc Devigne, Head of the Cabinet of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/ Vice-President of the European Commission Pedro Serrano, Chief Policy Advisors to the President of the European Council Simon Mordue and Magdalena Grono.
During the meetings the interlocutors highly appreciated the effective partnership between Armenia and the European Union, touched upon the implementation of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, discussed the prospects of the EU Eastern Partnership overall format, further process of implementation of the EaP Economic and Investment Plan and its deriving flagship initiatives, highlighted the importance of the parliamentary cooperation, as well as pointed out the remarkable achievements in the context of the Armenia-EU legal cooperation during the ongoing year.
A number of issues of mutual interest on the international and regional agenda, as well as the current situation around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were also touched upon. In this regard, the importance of an intensification of the NK peace process under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format was once again highlighted, and the Deputy Minister conveyed his words of gratitude to the President of the European Council Charles Michel for his continuous efforts to resolve the most important humanitarian issues and create an environment conducive to progress towards peace and reconciliation.
During the visit Deputy Minister Paruyr Hovhannisian also attended a roundtable discussion organized in the European Policy Centre, within the framework of which the sides exchanged views on the Armenia-EU relations and partnership prospects, the current situation around Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the impact of recent developments around Ukraine on Armenia and the EAEU region in general.
