The government’s press office did not mention the issue in its readout of the call. It said Pashinian praised Armenia’s deepening ties with the EU and briefed Costa on “the current state of the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process.” The two men agreed to “continue the dialogue,” it added in a statement.
Costa, who took up the EU’s top position on December 1, said, for his part, that they discussed “the positive momentum in EU-Armenia relations.”
“I expressed the EU’s commitment to further strengthen our partnership based on common values and deepen our cooperation across all sectors: security, economy, people to people contacts, democratic institutions and resilience,” he wrote on X.
The Armenian government backed a bill on the “start of a process of Armenia's accession to the European Union” on Thursday hours before Pashinian met with Magdalena Grono, the EU’s new special representative for the South Caucasus. The Armenian premier informed Grono about the decision and reminded her of his 2023 statement that Armenia is “ready to be as close to the EU as the EU deems possible.”
Grono said nothing about the EU membership bid on Sunday in a series of X posts on her visits to Yerevan as well as Baku. She noted instead the EU’s continuing support for the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
On Saturday, EU foreign policy spokeswoman Anitta Hipper told the Armenpress news agency that the 27-nation bloc will “analyze” the bill approved by Pashinian’s cabinet and “discuss it with the Armenian authorities.”
“Meanwhile, there is plenty we are already doing through implementation of our existing Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement,” said Hipper.
The bill in question was drafted by several pro-Western Armenian groups largely loyal to Pashinian. They collected last year 60,000 signatures in support of their demands for a referendum on joining the EU.
Pashinian said on Thursday that the referendum should be held only after Yerevan and the EU work out a “roadmap” to Armenia’s accession to the bloc. No EU member state has voiced support for such a prospect so far.
Pashinian and his entourage have been toying with the idea of a membership bid amid increased tensions with Russia, Armenia’s longtime ally and main trading partner and supplier of vital energy resources. Moscow has warned that Armenia will pay a huge economic price if it does strive to join the EU.
Armenian opposition figures maintain that the South Caucasus country has a near-zero chance of being ever admitted to the EU. They claim that Pashinian is using the issue to try to boost his flagging popularity.