On April 5 EBA participated in the first government-civil society format discussion on the implementation of the Armenia-EU CEPA Agreement’s Part 6

Yerevan, 5 April 2019 – EBA took part in the first discussion around the draft roadmap of the implementation of Part 6 of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enlarged Partnership Agreement (CEPA), on trade in the government-civil society format.

About thirty civil society representatives attended the discussion, during which have been touched upon such sensitive topics such as intellectual property protection, state registration, transparency and competition, dispute resolution.

Representatives of civil society are particularly interested in the  work that will be carried out in the direction of encouraging the  effective and smooth termination of the use of the geographical name  of “Cognac” labeling, its rebranding, and receiving technical and  financial assistance from the EU in order to preserve the competitive  position of products in foreign markets.

On November 27, 2017 in Brussels, Armenia signed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the EU. The  document covers a wide range of political, economic, financial and  humanitarian issues. The regime of  preferential export of Armenian goods GSP +  remains in force. It is also envisaged to strengthen cooperation in  the economic and political sectors, based on close ties and common  values, to promote the democratic, political, economic and  institutional stability of Armenia.

At the end of the meeting both parties expressed their willingness to continue the dialogue in the same format.