Democracy for us is not a coincidence of circumstances, but a strategy: Pashinyan
A substantial agenda has already been formed in our relations, which, in the foreseeable future, will need to be discussed at the level of summits, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during an expanded meeting with the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission.
“We already had the opportunity to discuss a fairly wide range of issues in a narrow format, and I am pleased to note that we have common positions and a shared understanding on many items on our agenda. This means there is an appropriate atmosphere for us to focus on the implementation and realization of that agenda.
I would also like to thank the European Union for the support it has provided to us during this period, particularly in the areas of democratic and institutional reforms. I have had many occasions to say that democracy for us is not a coincidence of circumstances, but a strategy consciously chosen by the people of the Republic of Armenia.
I would also like to touch again on a very important topic that I mentioned yesterday during the meeting of the Armenia Support Group. My assessment is that all reforms that could be implemented based solely on political will have already been carried out. To ensure the continuation of reforms, greater institutional, legislative, and expert input is now required. In this regard, our cooperation with the EU is very important, and I can already express my gratitude to our partners for supporting us in this matter-from issues related to guarantees of judicial independence to addressing various challenges, including hybrid threats, which are also on our agenda.
On several occasions during discussions within the EU, I have also observed that the spread of disinformation and hate speech on social networks-and sometimes in the media-is a problem for many EU countries as well, and today we are facing this issue. We hope that the EU will also support us in this area, whether through the exchange of experience or access to tools already implemented in the EU. We expect greater access to the content of those tools in order to apply them in Armenia,” he said.