The Armenian government will make soon detailed proposals designed to convince the European Union to significantly increase its economic assistance to Armenia, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Tuesday.
Pashinian criticized the EU for not promising additional aid to Yerevan when he ended a two-day visit to Brussels last week. The head of the EU Delegation in Armenia, Piotr Switalski, countered on Monday that his government needs to first come up with specific reform-oriented projects requiring EU funding.
Pashinian’s press secretary, Arman Yeghoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the government is now working on such projects.
“Those proposals are being worked out and I can say in general terms that they will mainly relate to the development of Armenia’s public infrastructures and institutional reforms … We are going to present clear programs,” he said.
Yeghoyan did not specify the amount of extra EU aid that will be requested by the new authorities in Yerevan. “We are talking about a fairly solid sum, but I can’t give a concrete figure,” he said.
Stepan Grigorian, a Yerevan-based political analyst, claimed that Pashinian’s government will be seeking as much as 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in EU funding.
The EU pledged last year to provide up to 160 million euros ($185 million) in fresh aid to Armenia over the next three years in line with the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed with the previous Armenian government.
Switalski announced that a senior official from the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, will visit Yerevan later this week to discuss with Armenian leaders their “expectations and needs.” “This must be a very concrete discussion,” the diplomat stressed.
Stepan Safarian, another pro-Western analyst, was very skeptical about Armenia’s ability to attract large-scale EU aid without a change of its geopolitical orientation. “It is not realistic to expect the kind huge of assistance which the EU has been providing to Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in return for their complete Europeanization,” he said. “Armenia must not have such expectations.”
Ever since he swept to power in a wave of mass protests in May, Pashinian has repeatedly ruled out a change of his country’s geopolitical orientation. While voicing support for closer ties with the EU as well as the United States, he has pledged to keep it primarily allied to Russia.
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