Brussels, 04/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 2 October, Armenia's President Serge Sarkisian announced that he wanted to sign the association agreement with the EU, without the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement (DCFTA) which is incompatible with the customs union (with Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus) that Armenia wants to join. “We are now ready to sign the association agreement with the EU. But unfortunately, after our declaration on joining the customs union, our colleagues in the European Commission have stated that there is direct opposition between the customs union and the free trade agreement”, he said (see EUROPE 10914). “We have proposed that we could just sign the association agreement, which mainly involves political reforms. We are not only ready, but determined to implement these reforms in our country. This process is under way”, Sarkisian added.
The European Commission has stated on several occasions that the two do not go together. “The association agreement, as negotiated for three and a half years with Armenia, is one document including the DCFTA. They cannot be separated and they are not compatible with the membership in the customs union”, Peter Stano, the spokesperson for Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle, told EUROPE. “So we are not initialling the association agreement as originally planned [at the Eastern Partnership summit] in Vilnius”, he added. The Commission is reflecting on another means of strengthening relations between the EU and Armenia, and the possibilities for another legally binding document - based on the points that have been negotiated over three and a half years.
In the view of Tevan Poghosyan, a member of the Armenian parliament, Armenians want to continue to cooperate with the EU on the reforms to be implemented “to continue to be a European country and to make progress on the path to European integration”. During a hearing at the European Parliament on 3 October, he said he did not believe that the customs union project would survive, and he added that some members of the customs union were not in favour of Armenia joining it. Poghosyan stated that the customs union will not allow his country to implement reforms - unlike the association agreement and cooperation with the EU. (CG/transl.fl)