Armenian delegation puts a veto on document in Euronest

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS:

At the first plenary sitting of the Euronest September 14-16 in Strasburg a concluding report was not adopted because of disagreements of the Armenian delegation over certain formulations put into circulation at the political committee. Member of the Armenian delegation Naira Zohrabian told Armenpress that our delegation has applied a veto to the presented document as the international norms presented in it were edited, the report includes the territorial integrity principle, instead the principle of self-determination was not fixed.

"The report related to the European integration, EU's role in the settlement of regional conflicts. The report also has formulations which related to international norms and don't' know why our eastern partners, and why not with the efforts of Georgia, as the co-author of the report is Georgian Davit Darcheashvili who together with the Azerbaijani member, edited the international norms", Zohrabian said.

According to her, the Armenian delegation tried to return its partners in Euronest to a constructive field, noting that they do not want the first plenary sitting of Euronest have an unpleasant end but they want the report to be adopted and sent to the Eastern Partnership Summit in Warsaw September 29.

"We have suggested not edit the international norms, which is a natural demand. All the international documents stress the principles of self-determination of people, territorial integrity and non-usage of force, but the report ignores them. Unfortunately, our partners spoke against the inclusion of the right of people to self-determination and naturally we had nothing to do but use our right to demand consensus as a result of which the report was not approved", Zohrabian said.

She noted that the Armenian delegation has never had illusions that Euronest will be an easy platform for us. "It was clear for us that in many cases we would face many issues. But it was unexpected that during the very first sitting we would have to overcome the stubborn confrontation of our certain eastern partners", the parliamentarian said, adding that the European integration is very important for Armenia but "no integration may be higher for us than our national interest".