Serious efforts to be necessary to preserve dynamics of growth of financing by EU: expert

Serious efforts will be necessary for preserving the dynamics of growth of financial assistance by the EU to Armenia, director of Hayatsk think tank Anna Karapetyan told Aysor.am, referring to the press conference by outgoing EU ambassador Piotr Switalski.

“The raise of financial assistance by the EU to Armenia is welcoming, it shows that Brussels appreciates the intention of Armenia’s authorities to make serious reforms and are ready to assist,” she said, adding that as Switalski said the raise in allocation is the assessment of well conducted elections.

“To preserve the dynamics though the Armenian side must undertake serious efforts and implement reforms in accordance with the European criteria, otherwise the allocated sum will reduce with the same dynamics,” she said.

The expert added that the realization that the growth in financial assistance is not just for 2018 political changes but clear programs and reforms in separate sectors.

“The EU attaches significance to the political will for fighting against corruption, for reforms in justice sector and is going to find means for the implementation of prior programs. But in this phase the funding is for the declared ideas and intentions. The quality of reforms and the efficiency may guarantee the continuation of the same financial flows,” Karapetyan said.

In her opinion the process showed that the Armenian authorities have realized and corrected the mistake in their approaches and started contacting with EU via clear programs.

The expert draw attention on the circumstance that the EU is ready for serious financial assistance to the reforms in judicial-legal sector but it does not mention the transitional justice and vetting.

Karapetyan also said the situation with visa liberalization regime is also worrying with Switalski stressing again the necessity of efforts by the Armenian authorities.

“It was previously stated that the Armenian side has ended its work. While now he even stated that the Armenian authorities are working with Georgia to pick up lessons from their experience. It is a negative tendency and means that we agree to the approach of projecting the negative experience of other countries. Even if the Armenian side agreed to it to speed-up the process, it is a rather worrying approach in political regard,” Karapetyan said.