On Saturday 10 May, a delegation from the EaP RSO Technical Secretariat and our local consultant for Armenia, Poghos Shahinyan, joined Yerevan’s Europe Day Info Fair at the invitation of EU Ambassador, Vassilis Maragos.

The event offered a unique opportunity for EU-funded projects to showcase their achievements, results, services, and products to a diverse audience, including representatives from the EU, Armenian authorities, civil society, media, and the general public. Our RSO team used the time to meet with key counterparts to discuss road safety priorities and explore how we could best support ongoing and future initiatives, while also enhancing the visibility of the EaP RSO in Armenia.

Our booth at the event served as a visibility point for introducing the Observatory’s mission and activities. The team distributed a variety of materials, including bilingual (Armenian–English) road crash data brochures, annual reports and engaging educational resources. These included a comic-style children’s book on road safety practices (developed by the EaP RSO), bookmarks, road safety-themed badges with messages, and an interactive quiz.

Over 100 visitors were introduced on the project and its goals, current activities, and Armenia’s work, along with other member countries, to improve the quality of road safety data collection in line with best EU and international practices.

The EU Ambassador to Armenia, Mr. Vassilis Maragos, also visited the RSO booth and expressed his strong support for the Observatory’s mission.

The event also coincided with the start of the 8th UN Global Road Safety Week, which this year focuses on the theme of safe walking and cycling. Our team used road safety week messaging to engage passers-by. According to WHO data, pedestrians make up a third of road fatalities in Armenia. During the visit, Tamar Sulukhia, Head of the Secretariat met with Ms. Kristine Ghalechyan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, and Ms. Arevhat Poghosyan, Head of the Road Policy Division of the Road Sector Policy Department. They discussed a number of areas including the prioritisation of school zone safety to protect vulnerable child pedestrians and how Armenia is now moving towards adopting Road Safety Audit rules. This will involve introducing audit accreditation mechanisms with the aim of making roads safer from a Safe System perspective. 

Overall, it was a highly productive mission and we look forward to following up during our Regional Road Safety Conference in Chisinau, Moldova on 30 June.