EU to allot 270 mln euros in grants to Armenia over next 4 years - European Commission president

YEREVAN. April 5 (Interfax) - The European Union will allot 270 million euros in grants to Armenia over the next four years, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

"This vision will be underpinned on the European Union's side by a resilience and growth plan for Armenia, 270 million euros in grants over the next four years. We will invest in making the Armenian economy and society more robust and resistant to shocks. We will support your businesses, your talents, in particular you small and medium enterprises, so that we can help them to grow, to innovate, and to access foreign markets," von der Leyen said at a press briefing before talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brussels on Friday.

The EU will invest in Armenia's nuclear and renewable energy industries, transborder transportation and flights, she said. "This support package we are presenting today builds on the success of the existing economic and investment plan from the European Unions for Armenia. It has already mobilized over 0.5 billion euros in investments. Now we can do even more with the fresh investment perspective, and that is why we have recently launched an investment coordination platform, so we can jointly identify new project, accelerate the pace and maximize the potential of our investments on the ground," she said.

Von der Leyen hailed Armenia's support for actions aimed at preventing Russia's circumvention of Western sanctions. "This shows that the European Union and Armenia are increasingly allied in values and interests," she said.

In turn, Pashinyan affirmed values shared with the EU. "This event underscores Armenia's commitment to our shared values [...] We will discuss Armenia's efforts to strengthen resilience of its democratic institutions. We firmly believe that the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms underpin our coalition. The Republic of Armenia reaffirms its commitment to advance justice and public sector reforms," he said.

He also noted Yerevan's commitment to normalizing relations with Azerbaijan and delimiting the border with due respect given for territorial integrity, as prescribed by the Almaty Declaration of 1991.

In turn, Blinken said at the press briefing that the United States would invest $65 million in the Armenian economy. "We are committed to further growing our support for Armenia's democratic and economic resilience, investments in food security, digital infrastructure, diversification of energy, diversification of trade partners and other priorities [of Armenia]," he said.

"We want Armenia to take a place as a strong, independent nation and peaceful to its neighbors," Blinken said. "The United States and the European Union both want to be partners in this effort. [...] We have to harness this moment of choice. [...] We will continue to support 100,000 ethnic Armenians displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.