Wait and check: Yerevan postponed the draft law on rapprochement with the EU for two months
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- Wait and check: Yerevan postponed the draft law on rapprochement with the EU for two months
In Armenia, consideration of the draft law on the start of the EU accession process was postponed for two months, Izvestia found out. Earlier, the parliament adopted the document in the first reading, the second was to be held on March 25. The parliament admitted that the consideration could have been postponed due to insufficient public support for the government's policy. According to recent polls, more than 65% of citizens negatively assess the work of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In addition, Yerevan is currently preoccupied with other foreign policy issues, the main one of which is the signing of a peace agreement with Baku. Whether the postponement can be considered as a change in Armenia's foreign policy is discussed in the Izvestia article.
Armenia is not joining the EU yet
Gegham Manukyan, a deputy from the opposition Armenia faction, told Izvestia that the Parliament of the republic postponed consideration of the draft law on the start of the EU accession process for two months.
— During the last review of the document in early March (by the Commission on European Integration, and not by the entire parliament. — Izvestia) a sudden situation has occurred. We decided to postpone the review for two months. This issue is not on the agenda yet," he said.
The other deputies interviewed by Izvestia did not refute, but also did not confirm the postponement of the meeting on this issue to May. According to Izvestia, there is no exact date for the meeting yet.
On January 9, the Armenian government approved a draft decision on the start of the EU accession process. After that, on February 12, the document was adopted in the first reading by the Parliament of the republic. Initially, the second reading was supposed to take place on March 4, but it was postponed, justifying this decision for "technical reasons." After that, the media reported that the second reading was scheduled for March 25.
It was reported that the reason for the postponement was the preamble to the document, which gives a political assessment of the aspirations of the people in the EU. Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan earlier proposed removing the preamble from the bill. According to him, this document is not an application for EU membership. The authors did not make any suggestions during the break between the first and second readings. It is possible that the authorities of the republic are postponing consideration of the bill due to insufficient support for European integration by the population, Gegham Manukyan believes.
— The adoption of the law does not in itself imply EU membership. The adoption of the law means that there are many citizens in Armenia who believe that the EU is a more profitable way than the EAEU," Nikol Pashinyan said earlier.
According to the Armenian Prime Minister, the decision on the country's accession to the EU should be made through a national referendum. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it is impossible to be a member of the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union at the same time. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said that Russia considers the discussion of this bill as the beginning of Yerevan's withdrawal from the EAEU. According to estimates, exports from Armenia will decrease by 80% in this case, and it will be impossible to replace losses with alternative routes even in the medium term.
One way or another, Armenia will not be able to join the European Union in the near future. The republic does not even have a common border with the union. Currently, nine countries have the official candidate status for joining the EU, including Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, and Ukraine.
For Armenia to join, it is necessary to carry out a number of reforms in national legislation, market economy and human rights protection. The republic has high unemployment rates, and small businesses are mostly in the "gray" zone, some experts say, says Yulia Davydova, director of the Center for Socio-Political Studies at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. Nevertheless, according to her, Armenia's economy formally meets the Copenhagen criteria, which are required to join the European Union. Currently, Armenia and the EU cannot launch a visa-free regime, as Yerevan must improve the situation in the field of border control and migration. Some experts believe that the European Union, with the help of Armenia, is only trying to consolidate its position in the South Caucasus in the context of a geopolitical confrontation with Moscow.
What is happening in Armenia now
It is possible that the consideration of the document was postponed, among other things, due to the change in relations between Russia and the United States, which forces Yerevan to adjust its actions, Gegham Manukyan believes.
"What is happening on the global political scene is changing the entire foreign policy atmosphere, and the ruling faction has simply decided to postpone this inappropriate bill," he says.
The media reported that after the start of negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Nikol Pashinyan instructed the country's government agencies to restore ties and contacts with their Russian counterparts. The Armenian prime minister allegedly recommended actively participating in joint events in connection with the "recent geopolitical changes." They claim that this is due to Russia's strengthening of its position in the region.
Nevertheless, Vadim Mukhanov, Head of the Caucasus Sector of the IMEMO RAS, believes that postponing consideration of the draft law should not be unequivocally perceived as a radical change in Yerevan's foreign policy.
— For Armenia, the priority now is normalization of relations with Azerbaijan and an attempt to normalize relations with Turkey. In addition, Pashinyan's team expects that the news of the approval of a peace agreement with Baku will be positively received in the structures of the European Union, the expert tells Izvestia.
Yerevan is currently concerned about the process of settling relations with Baku, which is not going smoothly. Over the past week, there have been repeated reports from the Azerbaijani side about shelling on the border from Armenian positions. The Armenian Defense Ministry has denied these allegations.
Yerevan called for a joint investigation into reports of shooting on the front line and asked Baku to provide the facts about violations available to it, but it rejected Pashinyan's proposal. According to Azerbaijani media, the country's Foreign Ministry called such a call a distortion of reality, reiterating the alleged "large-scale militarization of Armenia, the deployment of offensive weapons in the border areas."
However, on March 13, the Armenian Foreign Ministry announced that Yerevan and Baku had agreed on the text of the peace agreement and completed the negotiation process. Armenia explained that they are waiting for proposals from Azerbaijan regarding the place and date of signing the document.
On March 20, Nikol Pashinyan invited Ilham Aliyev to start consultations around the signing of an agreed draft peace treaty between the republics. "The draft peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been agreed upon and is awaiting signing. I am ready to put my signature to this document," the Armenian prime minister said on a social network.
However, the idea of signing a peace agreement with Baku and settling relations with Ankara is, to put it mildly, unpopular in Armenian society, Vadim Mukhanov says. Recently, the rating of the current authorities has been falling. According to a March 12 Gallup International survey, more than 65% of participants have a negative view of Pashinyan's work. Only 9% are positive. For clarity: in October 2024, 41.5% of participants were dissatisfied with the work of the prime minister, while 20.4% rather approved of his activities.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
