ARMENIA AND EU FINISH ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP TALKS, BUT NO AGREEMENT PUBLISHED SO FAR, EXPERTS SAY
Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
July 26 2013
26 July 2013 – 4:41pm
Armenia and the European Union have finished their talks concerning
the country’s associate membership in the body, EU foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton and EU commissioner for enlargement and neighbourhood
policy Å tefan Fule say.
“We are delighted to confirm that the talks devoted to the EU-Armenian
agreement on the country’s associate membership are finished,” the
statement issued by the two EU officials read.
They believe the agreement will be approved during the Eastern
Partnership summit that is going to be held in Vilnius on November
29th.
VK asked three experts to comment on the agreement and EU-Armenian
relations. The head of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the
Armenian Academy of Sciences, Ruben Safrasyan, stresses that the text
of the agreement has not been published so far. This means that certain
provisions remain unknown and it’s hard to make a final judgement,
the expert says. He doesn’t believe, however, that the agreement will
play a serious role in Armenia’s foreign policy.
Andrey Areshev, a member of the Central Asia and Caucasus Research
Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also believes that the fact
that the agreement has not been published yet is very peculiar. The
expert is certain that Armenian society is interested in public
discussion of the process, which may be rather complicated since the
European states and the countries of the South Caucasus are based on
different values.
Alexander Karavayev, a member of the Lomonosov Moscow State University,
agrees with his colleagues that it’s hard to comment on the agreement
while its text has not been published. He says, however, that some
experts believe that a free trade regime with the EU will encourage
a 3 percent economic growth in Armenia.