News - Parliament speaker: Armenia not waiting to become EU membership candidate

We discuss, we understand, we take note of that reality. Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, stated this speaking with reporters in the NA Wednesday—and referring to the resolution of the European Parliament where the latter calls on the European Union (EU) to give Armenia the status of a candidate for EU membership. "The European Parliament passed a decision, said that the standards of Armenia, the degree of democracy in Armenia are so high, Armenia is such a democratic country. Although the opposition says the degree of democracy in Armenia is very low, the European institutions said that ‘your standards are very good,’ and advised the EU to consider the matter of granting the EU membership candidate status to Armenia. It is an unprecedentedly very good thing, which also raised the security level of Armenia. But that does not mean that Armenia has taken the [respective] application, gone, and is waiting to become a candidate for EU membership. We discuss, we understand, we take note of that reality," said the Armenian parliament speaker. Simonyan noted that Armenia has a lot to do in that sense, so that it does not have to wait for years, like Turkey and Georgia. "Many things need to change, many standards need to be changed in Armenia. (…). The quality of our products should be improved. Becoming a member of the EU is not that the blue star-spangled flag appears in your life. It is the raising of the quality of goods, salaries, work. It's a huge job. Not to mention that it is still a big question how many years will it take if we apply. In terms of our democratic standards, we are much higher than the countries that have already applied, want to apply, even [than some of] the countries that are already members of the EU," added the Armenian NA speaker.