Commission chief’s trip underscores Brussels’ backing for Armenia’s Western turn after a landmark election that dealt a blow to Russian influence in the region.
BRUSSELS — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is preparing to travel to Armenia next week, according to three people familiar with the plans.
The EU delegation, which will also include Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, will visit Armenia in a high-profile show of support for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after his pro-European party secured a decisive victory in the country’s June parliamentary election.
The July 1 visit, the plans for which have not yet been finalized, comes as Pashinyan seeks to cement Armenia’s shift away from Moscow and deepen ties with the European Union following a vote widely viewed as a referendum on the country’s geopolitical future.
“We have seen the country under intense and consistent pressure from Russia; a visit would send a strong signal of support, following on from the concrete support already delivered,” said one EU official working on the prospective trip, granted anonymity to speak frankly, as were the other people with knowledge of the planned trip.
They added it would send the message that “Europe is here for you.”
The trip has other repercussions for Brussels, as the College of Commissioners meeting scheduled for July 1 has been canceled, according to two of the officials. As a result, several legislative proposals that had been due for adoption have been delayed or otherwise affected. Among them are the Commission’s Public Procurement Act, a planned overhaul of EU tendering rules, as well as initiatives on the defense single market, innovation and livestock farming, as POLITICO first reported. The Commission has not yet announced a new date for these files.
Next week’s trip will be von der Leyen’s second to Armenia in less than two months. The Commission president was in Yerevan in May for the European Political Community summit, which Armenia hosted, before taking part in the inaugural EU-Armenia summit.
This year’s Armenian election was the first since Russian forces began to abandon their posts in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2022, where they had been deployed as “peacekeepers” following a war two years earlier. The region, inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders, had been controlled by its ethnic Armenian population since a conflict in the 1990s. The entire population fled in the wake of an Azerbaijani offensive to retake the territory.
Since then, Pashinyan has accelerated Armenia’s turn toward the West, suspending participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led military alliance, and expressing interest in eventual EU membership.
Pashinyan won a third term and retained his parliamentary majority despite reported efforts by Moscow to influence the vote. The campaign was overshadowed by allegations of election interference and vote-buying, with Armenian authorities arresting more than 40 people over an alleged scheme that reportedly involved figures linked to opposition parties.
Brussels has stepped up political and financial support for Armenia as relations with the Kremlin have deteriorated.
Last week, the EU confirmed it would provide €34 million to help offset the impact of new Russian restrictions on Armenian exports and support efforts to diversify trade toward European markets. The bloc has also deployed a civilian monitoring mission along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
Jacopo Barigazzi, Francesca Micheletti and Aude van den Hove contributed reporting.
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