EU TO SPEED UP ‘ASSOCIATION’ TALKS WITH ARMENIA
Tigran Avetisian
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02.03.2010
The European Union is stepping up its efforts to negotiate an
association agreement with Armenia that will bring the latter "much
closer" to the EU, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos
said during a visit to Yerevan on Tuesday.
Armenia has been entitled to such an agreement since its inclusion
in the EU’s Eastern Partnership program. The scheme offers six former
Soviet republics deeper integration with the 27-nation bloc in return
for political and economic reforms.
Senior officials from the EU’s executive European Commission said
last September that the Armenian authorities will have to commit
themselves to specific "institutional reforms" before the formal
start of association and free trade talks with the bloc. They said the
Brussels-based commission will provide Yerevan with 33 million euros
($44.6 million) in technical assistance for that purpose in 2011-2013.
The commission subsequently sent a team of experts advising various
Armenian state agencies on the planned reforms. They were due to come
up with a relevant plan of actions by this June.
Moratinos, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency,
discussed the matter with President Serzh Sarkisian and Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian. "During the Spanish presidency, we will
speed up the mandate for starting negotiations on the association
agreement between Armenia and the European Union, and I hope that the
[EU] Council will announce this good news already in March," he told
a joint news conference with Nalbandian.
"A new chapter is opening between Armenia and the European Union,"
said Moratinos. He did not specify when the negotiations will get
underway and how long they should last.
"Armenia’s relations with the European Union have reached a turning
point," Nalbandian said, for his part. He described the EU as his
country’s "reliable political and economic partner."
"Moving closer to the European family is one of main directions of
Armenia’s foreign policy priorities, and we are committed to that
course," he added.
Easier access to the EU’s vast and affluent market would be one of the
most important tangible benefits of Armenia’s involvement in Eastern
Partnership. Trade and Economic Development Minister Nerses Yeritsian
said in September that the Armenian government thinks its forthcoming
free trade talks with the bloc can be completed within three years.
But he acknowledged that EU officials are less optimistic on that
score.
Armenia’s EU-backed rapprochement with Turkey and the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict were also high on the agenda of Moratinos’s talks in Yerevan.
The Spanish minister called for the ratification of the
Turkish-Armenian protocols "without preconditions and in a reasonable
time frame." He also told Sarkisian that the Karabakh conflict can
be settled "only by peaceful diplomatic means."
Moratinos also held separate meetings with top representatives of
the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) and the Zharangutyun
party. A Zharangutyun statement said two senior members of the
party discussed with him the political situation in Armenia and,
in particular, the lingering fallout from the March 2008 violence
in Yerevan.
An HAK spokesman told RFE/RL that the top leader of the opposition
alliance, Levon Ter-Petrosian, spoke with Moratinos only by phone,
leaving it to four other HAK figures to meet the visiting EU leader
in person.