On December 11, 2010, Yerevan will host a seminar on “EU Instruments Available to Armenia in the Framework of Association Agreement Negotiations.”
The seminar is organized by the National Security Council of Armenia, Ministry of Economy of Armenia and the EU Delegation to Armenia in cooperation with the Armenian-European Policy and Legal Advice Centre (AEPLAC).
The target group will comprise high level decision makers in the Armenian government institutions involved in policy formulation and implementation.
The aim of the seminar is to present the main instruments of financial and technical assistance (CIB; Twinning, TAIEX; support to the budget, technical assistance and others), which the EU makes available to Armenia in the context of the Association Agreement (AA) negotiations.
The EU operates Twinning and TAIEX instruments in Armenia since the endorsement of the Armenia-EU Action Plan in the European Neighborhood Policy framework. It also offers direct support to the state budget in those reforms related to the EU-Armenia Action Plan priorities.
Since the launch of the Eastern Partnership initiative in 2009, a Comprehensive Institution Building program (CIB) has been granted to support the preparation and negotiations of Armenian-EU Association Agreement. This refers to reforms towards a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, as well as visa facilitation and readmission agreements.
The seminar will discuss ways to achieve maximum possible efficiency of these instruments on an agreement-driven basis. It will specifically address prioritization and sequencing of the related reform efforts, and consider operational aspects on the executive level, AEPLAC reported.
