Brussels, 27/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, Polish Interior and Administration Minister Jerzy Miller and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian officially launched a new EU-Armenia Mobility Partnership on Thursday 27 October. Together with ten member states (Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden), they signed a joint declaration on carrying out a series of initiatives in the field of migration. This partnership follows on from others signed between the two parties, including a readmission agreement and a visa facilitation agreement (for certain categories of people), the Commission notes, and will create a framework for broader dialogue on migration, for example, the management of migration and also the integration and protection of migrants or returnees to Armenia from the EU.
The Mobility Partnership with Armenia is the fourth of its kind, following those concluded with the Republic of Moldova and Cape Verde in 2008 and Georgia in 2009. Mobility partnerships are not legally binding but provide a platform for dialogue.
In September of this year, the Commission sought a mandate from the Council to negotiate the readmission of illegal migrants and visa facilitation with Armenia (and with Azerbaijan). Assuming their government signs the readmission agreement, then young Armenians, researchers and other categories of people will find travelling to the EU much easier and make visas cheaper and simpler to obtain. (SP/transl.rt)