Friday, January 19 2018 20:08

ArmInfo. The EU will allocate 1.74 million EUR to the Armenian civil society for the implementation of five grant programs aimed at protecting human rights and strengthening democracy.

This is, in particular, the "EU Women's Program: Strengthening the economy through social enterprises" (a 24-month program with a budget of 446,797 euros); "EU for civil society: Energy saving for Armenian communities" (24-month program with a budget of 372,231 euros); "Positive changes, by strengthening the capacity of civil society" (duration of the program is 23 months, budget is -460 035 euros); "Access to information and investigative journalism for more informed citizens" (duration of the program is 20 months, budget - 390,000 euros); "A public view of the closed world: raising awareness about the state of human rights in closed institutions" (duration of the program is 24 months, budget - 278 072 euros).

The signing ceremony took place on January 19 in Yerevan. Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia Piotr Switalski before the ceremony of signing the agreements, noted that the implementation of these programs is a vivid example of the EU's commitment to promote civil society. According to him, there were many applications, but the most relevant ones were selected. "These five new programs include many areas, including youth in closed institutions, issues related to organizations run by women and government policies, budget execution and cutting energy costs, and therefore, regardless of your interest, they concern all of you", he noted.

At the same time, answering the question, what is the progress of Armenia in the issue of democracy, especially given the rather unsatisfying forecasts of human rights organizations such as Freedom House and Human Rights Watch, Switalski stressed that the Armenian society should give an assessment on this issue.  "But experience shows that the way to achieve positive results in the field of democracy, the rule of law, human rights is complex and thorny, and we are ready to assist the Armenian government in achieving positive results in this direction." We must understand that there is no ideal model of democracy to achieve the best results. You must understand that the EU does not impose anything, we can only provide assistance," the ambassador concluded. ВП.