ARMENIA, EU TO LAUNCH "ACTION PLAN" ON CLOSER TIES
By Emil Danielyan

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Oct 17 2006

Next month the European Union and Armenia will sign a five-year action
plan related to the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) program that
enables EU neighbors to establish preferential relations with the
25-country bloc. The development will be hailed by the authorities
in Yerevan as an important milestone in their intensifying efforts
at European integration. It will also underscore the EU’s apparent
intention to press harder for democratic reforms in the South Caucasus
country.

The ENP, which also covers Azerbaijan and Georgia, is designed to
enable participating nations to build privileged partnership with the
EU in return for sweeping reforms that would bring their political
and economic systems into conformity with European standards and
practices. Although the scheme does not open the door to membership
in the EU, it offers other tangible incentives such as free trade,
substantial economic assistance, and extensive political dialogue
with the expanding union. More importantly, it means a chance to
become part of what EU officials call Europe’s "four freedoms" —
the free movement of people, capital, goods, and services.

The three South Caucasus states were not included in the ENP when
it was launched in 2003, with the EU initially targeting other,
geographically closer former Soviet republics like Ukraine and
Moldova. Georgia’s November 2003 "Rose Revolution" appears to have
been instrumental in the EU’s subsequent decision to extend the scheme,
also known as "Wider Europe," to the volatile region.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia were officially invited to join the
ENP in June 2004 and opened talks with Brussels on their respective
"action plans" shortly afterwards.

The process has been slowed down by a controversy sparked by
Azerbaijan’s decision to establish commercial and air links
with Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus. The divided island’s
internationally recognized Greek government retaliated by freezing
Baku’s participation in the ENP. This led the European Commission to
put on hold its talks with Armenia and Georgia as well. The negotiating
process resumed only late last year. Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja
of Finland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency,
announced its effective completion as he visited the three counties
earlier this month. He said their action plans would be signed in
Brussels on November 14.

"The European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan is a significant step
towards an increasingly close relationship between the EU and Armenia,
going beyond cooperation to involve a significant measure of economic
integration and deepening of political cooperation," Tuomioja and his
Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanian said in a joint statement issued
after their talks in Yerevan on October 2. "The European Union and
Armenia are determined to make use of this occasion to enhance their
relations and to promote prosperity, stability, and security."

Officials have said before that the Armenian action plan, which has
not yet been made public, will be based on the recommendations of a
report released by the European Commission in March 2005. The 30-page
document called for democratic elections, the rule of law, respect for
human rights, anti-corruption measures, as well as further economic
reforms in Armenia. EU officials now stress that democratization
of the country’s deeply flawed political system will be a necessary
condition for Yerevan’s participation in the ENP.

Tuomioja specifically warned against a repeat of serious fraud in the
next Armenian parliamentary elections, due early next year. "Armenia
is aware that we all have to live up to our obligations, and if
there are deficiencies [in the conduct of the elections] they will
be noticed and there will be consequences," he told reporters in
the Armenian capital. The EU’s special representative to the South
Caucasus, Peter Semneby, likewise warned in July that the freedom and
fairness of the polls will be "crucially important" for the Armenian
government’s drive to forge closer links with Europe.

The EU has until now avoided active involvement in democracy-building
in Armenia, criticizing its rulers for rigging elections but refraining
from taking any punitive measures against them. The bloc’s external
relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, signaled a change
in this policy during a February visit to Yerevan. Issues related
to political reform and human rights protection were high on the
agenda of her meetings with President Robert Kocharian and other
Armenian officials.

Armenian leaders insist that they are taking the EU warnings seriously,
with Oskanian admitting that another rigged election would jeopardize
his country’s participation in the ENP. They argue that "European
integration" is now an increasingly high priority of Armenian foreign
policy. As if to drive home their point, they set up on September 7 two
new bodies headed by Prime Minister Andranik Markarian and tasked with
helping to deepen political and economic ties with the EU, Armenia’s
number one trading partner. The move followed Kocharian’s recent
instruction to his government to come up with a comprehensive plan
of action that will accelerate Armenia’s integration into European
and Euro-Atlantic structures.

Whether the Armenian leadership, which has failed to hold a single
election recognized as democratic by the West, is prepared to go as
far as to end chronic vote rigging and run the risk of losing power
for the sake of that integration seems doubtful. The EU questioned
its commitment to democracy as recently as last December, in the wake
of a fraudulent referendum on Kocharian’s amendments to Armenia’s
constitution.

(Aravot, October 3; Joint statement by the foreign ministers of
Armenia and Finland, October 2; Azg, September 8; RFE/RL Armenia
Report, July 24, February 17)