Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments Garegin Melkonyan (right) with Head of Cooperation Section of Delegation of European Union to Armenia Hoa-Binh Adjemian on April 7, 2017 (Photo: Photolure)

YEREVAN (Banks.am)—The European Union will provide around 17 million euros to Armenia within the frames of Budget support program this year, Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments Garegin Melkonyan told journalists on Friday.

“The implementation of Budget support in 2017 has resulted in a number of substantial reforms in Armenia’s justice system, agriculture, education and other key sectors,” Melkonyan noted.

According the Ministry, 27.5 million euros of has been provided to Armenia within the framework of the Budget support program.

The Deputy Minister emphasized that Armenia is working toward efficient working of every single program financed by the European Union.

Hoa-Binh Adjemian, Head of Cooperation Section of Delegation of European Union to Armenia, said that “Armenian continued to successfully implement this program.”

The EU representative informed that the program of state reforms (20 million euros), implemented with EU support in Armenia, will help advance electronic governance systems in the country and hence provide all Armenian citizens with electronic ID cards.

“We try to find the best modality to help Armenian citizens. We entered into dialog with the Armenian government to decide on what is the best tool to bring reforms to the Armenian citizens,” Adjemian noted.

The amount of EU-provided Budget support to Armenia has totaled to EUR 250 mln in the last 10 years, which is about EUR 25 mln per year.

Generally, EU provides about EUR 40-50 million to Armenia every year within the frames of different programs, the half of which is directed to the Budget support program.

The total amount from this program will be transferred to the Armenian state budget. The funds are sent only after Armenia implements all responsibilities provided by the agreements reached with the EU.