Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Arrives  in Armenia

ArmInfo.European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and EU enlargement negotiations, Johannes Hahn will visit Armenia on January 29. This  was reported to ArmInfo in the EU delegation in Armenia.

According to the source, during the visit, the European Commissioner  will hold talks with President Armen Sargsyan and the Prime  MinisterNikol Pashinyan On the same day, Johannes Khan will be  received by Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, after  which a press conference of the RA Foreign Minister and a European  official will be held.Rana ArmInfo, citing the report of the European  Commission, reported that the European Union will provide Armenia  with a loan of more than 700 million euros for the implementation of  infrastructure projects. The report notes that the credit resources  allocated to Armenia will become part of the EU's general assistance  to countries participating in the Eastern Partnership program -  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. 

The total budget of the program, which will be funded jointly by the  European Union and the World Bank, will be 13 billion euros. The  project involves the construction of roads and railways with a total  length of 4,800 kilometers, as well as the development of ports,  airports, logistics centers and checkpoints. Brussels believes that  the development of infrastructure in the Eastern Partnership  countries - Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine - will  contribute to economic growth in these countries and the creation of  new jobs. Some projects are planned to be completed already in 2020,  and some only by 2030. It should be noted that earlier in Yerevan  they have already designated the directions of financing. 

Among the priority projects, in particular, was the reconstruction of  the Artashat-Agarak highway, which is part of the construction of the  North-South transport corridor. The project is expected to be  implemented by the EUwill provide 450 million euros. Until 2030, the  main task is the program to modernize the Yerevan- Vanadzor highway,  which costs 7.5 million euros, reconstruct the Gyumri-Bavr highway -  41 million euros, and build a new border checkpoint inMegri - 15  million euros. 

We also recall that at the Eastern Partnership Summit in 2017, six  member states of the program were included in the Trans-European  Transport Network, a large-scale project whose goal is to improve the  transport system of the European Union and its neighbors. The Eastern  Partnership (EaP) is a program of the European Union, launched in  Paris in 2009. The idea of the project was presented by Polish  Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The EAP sets itself the main task  - the development of EU relations with the six countries of the  former Soviet Union: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova  and Ukraine.  Armenia in 2017 at the summit in Brussels signed an  agreement on a comprehensive and expanded partnership with the EU.