EU Visa Liberalization: Armenia Has Already Completed 41 Out of 72 Planned Actions

On August 12, a meeting of the working group formed to implement the EU visa liberalization action plan was held. The session was chaired by Acting Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Armen Ghazaryan.

Participants included Acting Deputy Minister of Justice Anna Karapetyan, Acting Deputy Minister of Finance Edgar Mkrtchyan, representatives from relevant agencies, and experts.

Armen Ghazaryan noted that the implementation of the action plan continues under the coordination of Armenia's chief negotiator for EU visa liberalization, Arpine Sargsyan. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is committed to ensuring the full implementation of the established benchmarks.

It was mentioned that out of the 72 actions planned for the third and fourth directions of the program, 41 have already been completed, while work continues on the remaining 31 actions.

The focus of the implementation work is primarily on the formation of a legislative and strategic framework. Two visits by an EU evaluation mission are planned for Armenia before the end of the year. In October, progress in the first and second directions of the program will be evaluated, while in December, the progress in the third and fourth directions will be assessed.

Representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs also presented the development process of the crime prevention strategy and the related action plan. Draft documents are already prepared, and efforts are underway to refine them and adopt the strategy by the end of the year.

During the meeting, participants discussed the planned steps outlined in the draft action plan for the implementation of the "Government Action Plan for the Implementation of the RA-EU Visa Liberalization Action Program." The participants provided suggestions and clarified the priorities for further work.