Samvel Farmanyan: Draft joint statement proposed by European Parliament members did not comply with the spirit and letter of equal partnership

The draft joint statement proposed by the European Parliament members did not comply with the spirit and letter of equal partnership, Samvel Farmanyan, 
Armenian Co-Chair of the Armenia-EU Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, said at today's press conference.  

As regards the results of the Committee's 14th session on Feb 5-6 in Strasbourg, where the parties failed to coordinate the text of the joint statement, Farmanyan said that the European parliamentarians have some misunderstanding on Armenia's latest foreign political decisions related to the intention to join the Customs Union. 

"According to the Regulations of the Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, such sessions are usually followed by adoption of a statement by the two equal parties to the document, which should have included the Armenia-EU relations, Armenian-Turkish relations and the Karabakh problem", said Farmanyan.

He said that Armenia proposed its own draft statement regarding the Karabakh conflict. European parliamentarians, in turn, proposed their own version. Moreover, the European Co-Chair of the Committee told Farmanyan that the formulations express the joint opinion of all political parties and that the document might not be debated. "Actually, the document should have been adopted by the two equal parties. In this context, the statement that the European partners' version may not be debated runs counter to the logic of equal partnership. Furthermore, the formulations they proposed were 
unacceptable and failed to contribute to peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict. They also could cause some discrepancies", he said. 

When commenting on the accusations of the Armenian Delegation's members who say that Farmanyan took decisions single-handedly, Farmanyan said that he was short of time. "We had very little time to discuss and come to a consensus on the text of the statement. In such situations, the obligation of the head of the Committee is to assume some responsibility for the decisions. And I assumed that responsibility. I consider that the Europeans' document contained formulations running counter to our stance on the Karabakh peace process", he said. He also expressed his readiness to discuss that 
document in professional circles and give clear reasons for his behavior if necessary.