It isn’t realistic touching upon possibility of signing Armenia-EU framework agreement in May: German analyst

“Content of Armenia-EU framework agreement to be signed can’t be compared with the Association Agreement (AA), as the document of 2013 promised more serious cooperation to the sides, which would move Armenia-EU relations to another level,” Susan Stewart, Deputy Head of the Eastern Europe and Eurasia Research Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), German analyst told 168.am, reflecting to finalization of Armenia-EU negotiations.

Within Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Brussels on February 26-28 it was announced about finalization of Armenia-EU negotiations about three years later.  The new legal document – the comprehensive and expanded partnership agreement reflects the real inclusiveness and deepness of Armenia-EU relations.

President Serzh Sargsyan announced with content about this following the meeting with Donald Tusk, European Council President. “The key topic of today’s meeting is the new framework agreement between Armenia and the EU. Today I can mention with satisfaction that the sides have finished the negotiations,” president Sargsyan said.

Almost all EU top officials have reflected to this, qualifying as a second chance for Armenia. Susan Stewart stated that Serzh Sargsyan’s visit was rather crucial, as he had meetings with heads of all EU institutes, NATO Secretary General.

According to her not all visits are accompanied by such saturation, however, basically it was dictated, guided by Armenia, which finalized negotiations at this very stage on the threshold of upcoming parliamentary elections. “Throughout recent year the EU repeats that Eastern Partnership countries decide the quality, engagement, depth, deadlines of some stages of negotiations with the EU themselves. As we saw, this stage coincided with the threshold of upcoming elections in Armenia,” Susan Stewart said.

The latter informed that she isn’t familiarized with the text, but she can surely state that content of the future agreement is incomparable with the document of 2013, which promised much more serious cooperation, that would move Armenia-EU negotiations to another level. Upon the future agreement, according to German analyst, Armenia-EU ongoing relations will be enshrined and it’ll resemble current “Partnership and Cooperation Agreement” with slight changes.

Susan Stewart expressed hope that the agreement text will be available, which will make the discourse around signing the agreement more transparent. To the observation that there are hopes that the agreement will be signed in May, the German analyst said,

“It isn’t realistic touching upon signing the agreement in May, as only preparation will take months, main component of which is confirmation of the text of the agreement by parliaments of EU member countries. This will take months. Thus, upon my calculations, we may touch upon the end of the year, or beginning of next year, earlier than that it isn’t realistic touching upon signing, despite the intention of the EU to sign it soon,” she said.

By Araks Martirosyan