March 27, 2007 - 15:10 AMT
Continuation of Armenia-EU plan to depend on quality of elections in RA
The coming parliamentarian elections will become a "litmus paper" for determining further relations of the European Union with Armenia, German Ambassador to Armenia Heike Renate Peitsch told during a conference March 27 titled "Free and Fair Elections as a Base for Democracy". She said, the EU hopes voting in the country will be held in accordance with the norms of OSCE's ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights). "Armenia is the first country where elections are held after signing the European Neighborhood Policy program. We've fixed actions for the coming 5 years in the program, their continuation will depend on the quality of electoral process," she noticed.

"The EU expects that during elections rights of citizens will be protected, members of electoral committees will do their work on professional level, and in case of falsifications infringers will be punished in accordance with the law," the German Ambassador stressed adding that Armenia has all chances for holding fair and transparent elections, and in order to organize an exemplary election also political will of authorities is needed.

Heike Renate Peitsch also noted that the international community expects conduction of democratic elections in Armenia with positive steps in this direction, IA Regnum reports.