ROUNDTABLE ON ARMENIA’S POLICY ON EUROPEAN INTEGRATION CONVENED IN YEREVAN

armradio.am
17.04.2008 17:47

The Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS)
today convened a foreign policy roundtable to examine Armenia’s policy
on European integration and the country’s commitments made and actions
taken to that end. The meeting brought together MPs, foreign embassy
and mission personnel, leading analysts, policy specialists, public
and political figures, and media representatives.

ACNIS research coordinator Syuzanna Barseghian welcomed the audience
with opening remarks. "The current analytical observations carry the
objective of shedding light on the challenges that are dependent on
today’s geopolitical realities," Barseghian said. "These observations
seek to provide answers to the key questions concerning the political
course Armenia has chosen on its road to integration into Europe and
the priority measures planned for that purpose."

The day’s first speaker, Chairman Karen Bekarian of the "European
Integration" NGO, reflected on the policy of European integration in
terms of its real and demonstrative manifestations. He drew attention
to the fact that there is no clear-cut and common view in Armenia
regarding this process and therefore European integration has no
societal demand in our country.

"All the political players are simply exploiting the notion of European
integration, making it serve their individual interests. They are
disregarding the true interests of the state and the people," Bekarian
stated. In his viewpoint, Armenia’s current coalition government is
a prime example that bespeaks the absence of a shared outlook with
respect to the country’s European integration prospects. Bekarian
argued that two of the political parties in power consider EU
membership as an ultimate goal, whereas according to the other two
ruling coalition parties–who even though place a huge emphasis on
partnership with the European institutions–accession to the European
Union is not a final objective for Armenia.

In his intervention, member of the Armenian National Assembly Armen
Ashotian examined the priority measures for Armenia’s integration into
Europe. In his view, the need for European integration is primarily
dependent on the factors which secure a rapid progress in Armenia
with respect to democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms,
poverty reduction, and reforms within state governance. According
to Ashotian, this need also heavily depends on the expectation of a
peaceful resolution to the Karabakh conflict, regional integration,
financial support, and adaptation of a civilized value system.

"The prospects for Armenia’s European integration, and specifically
our involvement in the ‘European Neighborhood Policy,’ allows us a
wonderful opportunity to implement those qualitative and systemic
reforms that are fixed in the government’s and the newly elected
president’s agenda," Ashotian maintained.

In his turn, Member of Parliament Stepan Safarian explored Europe’s
reaction to the electoral processes in Armenia and looked at the
priorities of the political course to be adopted by our country. In
his opinion, the imperative for European integration demands on the
flawless execution of the commitments that are assumed in line with
the international accords, treaties, and other formal documents. As
Safarian argued, despite the fact that in their evaluations the
European institutions mostly encourage and rarely criticize the
electoral processes in Armenia while in terms of relations between
the authorities and the opposition they uphold a balanced approach,
during the recent presidential elections, this picture was quite
different. "Today the main target of European criticisms are the
authorities and this, in my opinion, is because of the concern toward
strengthening the divided political opposition and as a result of a
more approving demeanor by the opposition," Safarian said, not ruling
out this time the possibility of European sanctions against Armenia.

The policy roundtable concluded with an exchange of opinions and
policy recommendations among political scientist Edward Antinian;
Vahe Gevorgian from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; independent
analyst Manvel Sargsian; Suren Movsisian of the Noravank Foundation;
ACNIS analyst Hovhannes Manukian; and several others.