YEREVAN, APRIL 7, NOYAN TAPAN. "The European Union-Armenia contractual relations are becoming closer not gradually, but they are rising to a new level," Commissioner for EU Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule said at the April 6 joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian. Underlining the importance of EU assistance to reforms in Armenia, he said that the Mutual Understanding Memorandum on the National Indicative Program for 2011-2013 to be signed with Armenia envisages indicative allocation of 157.3 million euros under the European partnership and neighborhood tools. By this program, at least 32 million euros will be allocated to the comperehensive program of development of state government bodies, and at least 7 million euros will be given to harmonization policy. The assistance will be provided to 3 main spheres: democratic institutions and good governance, trade and investment, and improvement and reforms of the regulation field. Speaking about the Karabakh conflict, S. Fule noted that the not only does the EU support the Karabakh conflict settlement within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, but it also prepares a concrete program on confidence strengthening in Nagorno Karabakh and the whole region. In response to a question about the belligerent statements regularly made by Azerbaijan, S. Fule replied that any belligerent statement does not contribute to the peaceful settlement of the process. As for the Armenia-Turkey normalization, the EU official expressed a high opinion about the determination of Armenia's president and authorities to engage in dialog with Turkey and find a way out of the impasse. He stressed that Armenian-Turkish normalization would be useful for Turkey's accession to the EU because the EU attaches great importance to good-neighborly relations with neigboring countries. When responding to a reporter's question, E. Nalbandian underlined that there was no change in the Armenian position on the issue of recognizing the status of Nagorno Karabakh. "We have repeatedly stated, and not only we - the Co-Chairs also realize that the major issue of the Karabakh problem solution is the recognition and exercise of Karabakh people's right to self-determination. In line with the indicated context, the statement of Armenian President also speaks of that. If this major issue is solved, it will be easier to discuss the other issues and to find decisions and solutions," the foreign minister said. To recap, in an interview with Der Spiegel, Serzh Sargsyan said that if Azerbaijan recognizes the independence of Nagorno Karabakh, it will become possible to solve the Karabakh problem within a few hours.

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