Corruption has become an Issue of National Security in Armenia: EU Ambassador

Piotr Świtalski, Head of EU Delegation to Armenia, expressed his disposition on implications of corruption in Armenia and the necessity to fight against it at the meeting of NGOs of Geharkunik province and heads of mass media.

The EU Ambassador stressed that they strongly highlight decentralization of Armenia’s economy and formation of a fair competitive field, elimination of economic monopolies, which will greatly contribute to the development of SMEs, as well as creation of new and stabile workplaces.

“Upon our observations, Armenia suffers more from corruption, fight against which should be led from top to bottom, in that case only that fight will succeed. And we’ll assist in that fight from top to bottom. Corruption has become a national security issue in the Republic of Armenia. You should have an independent investigative body of fight against corruption,” he said.

To the reporter’s question whether it won’t be more productive to support the fight against corruption from top to bottom, strengthening of the civil society in Armenia, the Ambassador replied, “The Republic of Armenia has strong civil society, it’s able to uncover numerous cases of abuse, corruption elements, successively fight against them, however, fight from top to bottom would be even more successive, which we consider a productive way,”  Piotr Świtalski said.

By Khosrov Khlghatyan