The Armenian government endorsed in January a bill declaring the “start of a process of Armenia's accession to the European Union” and pushed it through the country’s parliament three months later. Government officials have stressed that it does not amount to an EU membership bid. It remains unclear what Yerevan is planning to do next.
In an interview with RFE/RL, the EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos declined to say whether Brussels would welcome such a bid.
“What happened in the Armenian parliament shows that the effectiveness of the EU is higher than it used to be,” she said. “There are two conditions under which a country can apply: it has to be a state and it has to be a European state. We haven’t got the [membership] application yet, but then we will see.”
Russia has repeatedly warned that Armenia’s continued efforts to join the EU are “incompatible” with its membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led trade bloc. It has said that the South Caucasus nation risks losing its tariff-free access to Russia’s vast market and having to pay much more for Russian natural gas and foodstuffs.
A senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, Mikael Agasandian, reiterated those warnings in an interview with RIA Novosti news agency published on Thursday.
“The law on the beginning of the EU accession process adopted in the republic on April 4 has a declarative nature and does not currently suggest any concrete actions that question Armenia's membership in the EEU,” Agasandian said. “However, it is obvious that at a certain stage of such a rapprochement, the demands of Brussels - an inevitable part of the ‘European path’ - will come into conflict with Yerevan's commitments within the framework of the Union. We are talking about spheres such as customs, customs-tariff and technical regulation, trade policy, sanitary and phytosanitary measures.”
“In the event that Yerevan still takes steps contrary to EEU law -- which, as we expect, will not happen) -- and, in other words, in fact, violates the [founding] EEU treaty, we have the necessary international legal mechanisms to protect the interests of the other member states,” he said.
Russia accounted for over 41 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade last year, compared with the EU’s 7.7 percent share.