Brussels, 04/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 3 September, Armenia's President Serzh Sarkisian announced that Armenia would join the customs union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan), after a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
“I confirmed Armenia's intention of joining the customs union and the process of forming the Eurasian union”, Sarkisian told journalists. He said that “this is a rational decision which stems from Armenia's national interests. This decision does not constitute a refusal to continue our dialogue with the European structures. We intend to pursue these reforms in the future.”
Stating on his internet website that he wants Armenia to join the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the military alliance led by Russia, Sarkisian justified his choice by saying that, “when you are part of a military security system, it is impossible and ineffective to isolate yourself from a corresponding economic area”. Russia is Armenia's biggest trading partner and its biggest foreign investor.
Not possible to be part of the customs union and a free-trade area with the EU. Armenia was due to initial an association agreement - with a deep and comprehensive free-trade area - with the EU at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius at the end of November. Yet it seems complicated or even impossible to be a member of both the free-trade area with the EU and the customs union. In the view of Lithuania's Foreign Affairs Minister Linas Linkevicius - whose country currently holds the rotating Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers - “if Armenia decides to join the customs union, it means that it will not be able to sign the free-trade agreement with the European Union.” “We respect the choices made by each country but it is not possible to be part of the two organisations at the same time because of different tariff constraints”, he added.
Peter Stano, the spokesperson for Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle, said that the Commission was in contact with its Armenian partners to see the details of the future arrangements and what possibilities result from these. “We want to underline once again that the association agreement with a deep and comprehensive free-trade area is a blueprint for reforms and not a zero-sum game, and could be compatible with economic cooperation with the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States”, Stano added.
European sources have told EUROPE that it is a “substantial change” and that it is necessary to see what the agreement between Russia and Armenia includes.
“Armenia is currently turning away from Europe”, said the vice-chair of the EPP Group at the European Parliament, Gunnar Hökmark, regarding Armenia's decision. In Hökmark's opinion, “with this step, the prospects for democracy will be weakened and the risk of increased Russian influence over its neighbours will increase”. “Countries that are ready to strengthen democratic structures and the rule of law must know that the EU is open to closer cooperation and integration, strengthening their independence and our common security”, he added, stressing the importance of the Eastern Partnership. (CG/transl.fl)