The European Commission and the Armenian government have identified concrete areas where they could deepen their relations after Armenia’s recent accession to a Russian-led bloc, according to a senior official from the European Union’s executive body.
European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said the two sides completed earlier this week a “scoping exercise” that paved the way for the start of official negotiations on a new agreement between Armenia and the EU. Speaking after talks with Armenian leaders in Yerevan late on Wednesday, Hahn said he expects the EU member states to give the green light to those talks at a summit that will take place in Riga in May.
The planned deal will serve as a substitute for an Association Agreement that had been negotiated by Brussels and Yerevan. President Serzh Sarkisian precluded its signing in 2013 with his decision to seek Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
“There was a decision of the Armenia government and we were not happy because everything was negotiated,” Hahn told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) and the Yerevan-based TV channel H3. “But our doors are never closed. So we started to inquire what is possible under the new conditions.
“And there was a scoping exercise, completed just a couple of days ago, between the Armenian government and the European Commission to see what is possible. It looks quite promising.”
“Now we have to draw our conclusions and to report to our member states and hope that in the course of the Riga summit we will get a mandate for real negotiations concerning a new agreement based on the experiences of the past,” added Hahn.
Hahn explained that the discussions between Armenian and EU officials were meant to “identify the areas and the depth of cooperation.” He did not specify those areas, saying only that the new EU-Armenia accord will be different from the cancelled Association Agreement.
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian similarly announced the impending start of official negotiations on the deal after his meeting with Hahn held earlier on Wednesday.