Asbarez: EU Foreign Ministers Approve New 2-Year Mission to Armenia

EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas meets with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Brussels on Apr. 14

The foreign ministers of the European Union on Tuesday approved the establishment of a new “Partnership Mission” to Armenia, which the bloc said “is a further contribution in the efforts to enhance Armenia’s democratic resilience and its ability to manage crises.”

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry was quick to welcome the announcement. The assistance from the EU was requested from Yerevan to counter what it termed as “hybrid threats” prior and during Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary election on June 7. The Armenian government implicitly alleged that Russia was interfering in the election process.

”The decision on the deployment of the civilian mission, adopted upon the request of the Republic of Armenia, ahead of the first Armenia-EU Summit scheduled for May 5, is one of the joint initiatives stemming from the strategic agenda of Armenia-EU partnership,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The EU already decided last month to send a separate “hybrid rapid response team” to Yerevan for the upcoming elections.

The mission approved on Tuesday will have an initial mandate of two years and will be separate from the so-called “hybrid rapid response team” and the current EU Monitoring Mission in Armenia, which has been in place since 2022.

According to a statement from the EU, the mission will support Armenia facing multi-layered threats such as foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), cyber-attacks and illicit financial flows. EUPM Armenia will provide strategic advice and capacity building to various ministries and national institutions on the development of policies to address threats faced by society and national institutions, and support the development of a horizontal, whole-of-government approach.

The mission will also provide operational advice and feature a project cell responsible for identifying and implementing concrete actions in the areas covered by the mandate of the mission, in close coordination with like-minded partners, according to the EU statement.

“Armenians are facing massive disinformation campaigns and cyber-attacks. Over the next years, a new EU civilian mission will provide expert advice, capacity building for government departments and a team monitoring areas for urgent action. When Armenians go to the polls in June, they alone should choose their country’s future. The EU helps to protect Armenia’s resilience,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief said in a statement.

The mission will be part of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy and will be led the Managing Director of the Civilian Operations Headquarters within the European External Action Service – Stefano Tomat – who will be the Civilian Operation Commander.

“He will exercise command and control of EUPM Armenia at the strategic level under the political control and strategic direction of the Council’s Political and Security Committee, and the overall authority of the High Representative,” the EU statement said.

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