YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 19, NOYAN TAPAN. During the February 19 meeting with the European Commission's fact-finding group, the Chairman of the RA State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition Ashot Shahnazarian stated that "Armenia has been striving for a free trade agreement for a long time". A free trade agreement envisages entrance of Armenian goods into markets of EU member states without customs duties (and vice versa), which is of vital importance for export promotion and the growth of investments. At the same time, ensuring free economic competition is one of the most important conditions for free trade. At the request of the group's members, A. Shahnazarian spoke about the challenges existing the field of competition. First, there are legislative shortcomings, due to which the opinions of the Commission's experts may become a subject of double comment or discussion by other state bodies. Secondly, there are disparities in penalties envisaged by the laws on competitive and administrative offences: the first one envisages a concrete penalty for a concrete violation in order to avoid corruption risks, while the other one uses the principle of proportionality when the penalty should fit the offence. Some corruption risks arise here, and a society, all bodies of which comprehend unambiguously the essence of the law of competition, is necessary. According to the Commisison's head, such problems also exist in the financial market and issues related to state assistance. A. Shahnazarian pointed out that the Commission jointly with the Armenian government implements programs that will ensure Armenia's real integration with the EU in legislative and economic spheres under the European Neighborhood Policy. As regards the conditions of a free trade agreement, the members of the fact-finding group underlined the important role of the body for protection of competition as well as the necessity of EU's assistance for solution of the problems raised by the Commission. According to the press service of the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition, the fact-finding group is expected to present a report on Armenia's progress to the RA government in late April. Issues of economic competition will also be addressed in the report.

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