Ex-Soviet state moves closer to EU membership bid
The Armenian government has approved a draft law which would initiate a referendum on membership in the EU, local media reported on Thursday.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Yerevan has been cozying up with Western nations, primarily France. They offered themselves as security providers for the small landlocked nation that borders rival country Azerbaijan.
Armenia has been working to reduce the role traditionally held by Russia in its defense and diplomatic mediation. In October, Yerevan and Moscow agreed that Russian guards protecting the country’s border with Iran would soon be replaced by local counterparts. Moscow has been providing troops to protect Armenian borders since the 1990s.
Yerevan has been signaling for months that it could formally apply for EU membership in the near future. Last September, a petition to initiate a referendum on EU membership was launched, with 60,000 Armenian voters signing it by late October. The Central Election Commission acknowledged the initiative’s viability in December.
Pashinyan said on Thursday that Yerevan will discuss with Brussels a roadmap to accession before holding a nationwide vote.
In the past, successful EU applicants had to undergo extensive economic and political reforms before even being granted candidate status. Armenia and the EU have been working under a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) integration framework, which entered into force in 2021.
The bloc has been reevaluating its expansion policy amid the escalating conflict with Russia. Brussels put Moldova and Ukraine on the path to accession in June 2022, in what was widely perceived as a political snub to Moscow. Georgia, which has been pursuing a more independent national policy in recent years, was snubbed by the European Council as it accepted the bids of the two other former Soviet states.
Moscow has warned the Armenian people not to trust Western intentions, saying the US and its allies don’t have the interests of their country at heart. Armenia “will have to renounce its own traditions, national societal norms, and stable commercial ties” with other countries in the region to realign itself with the West, which would amount to “national suicide,” the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service said last November.
Last March, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Pashinyan government of “using pretexts and distorting [recent] history to deliberately undermine the relationship with the Russian Federation.”
