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EU ACHIEVED LITTLE PROGRESS TOWARDS RESOLVING KARABAKH CONFLICT - REPORT
news.am
February 03, 2012 | 12:48
The European council on foreign relations issued European Foreign
Policy Scorecard assessing the EU's performance on the global stage
across all 27 states.
The report says despite relatively unity, the EU has achieved little
progress towards resolving the Karabakh conflict.
"Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of
Nagorno-Karabakh continue to rise and there remains the risk of an
accidental war between them," the report says.
"Compared to the conflicts in Transnistria or Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, the EU has even less leverage in discussions over the future
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. All member states support
peaceful resolution of the conflict, yet both they and the EU's
institutions invest less time in this issue compared to the other
two protracted conflicts.
The EU as such is not present in the negotiating framework and is
represented by France in the OSCE's Minsk Group, the key framework
for discussions about the conflict. France, which co-chairs the group
along with Russia and the US, is not willing to give up its seat for
a formal EU representative.
As a result, while EU member states agree in their assessments of
the conflict, they remain largely absent from the negotiations. In
2011, the Minsk Group met no less than six times. But it was Russia
that continued to play the principal role in negotiations about the
conflict settlement. The EU restricted itself to supporting Moscow's
initiative to reach a breakthrough in negotiations via a separate
track outside the group.
However, although Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met the leaders
of Armenia and Azerbaijan in February, March and June, the meetings
yielded no progress.
The agreement on the basic framework of the future political settlement
of the conflict - the so-called Madrid Principles - remains on paper
only. Both the EU and member states in general seem determined the
isolate the Nagorno-Karabakh issue from their relations with both
Armenia and Azerbaijan. For example, they did not make discussion
with the two countries on issues such as energy or trade conditional
on progress on Nagorno-Karabakh. The EU has also failed to engage
meaningfully with the other two key players, Turkey and Russia."
news.am
February 03, 2012 | 12:48
The European council on foreign relations issued European Foreign
Policy Scorecard assessing the EU's performance on the global stage
across all 27 states.
The report says despite relatively unity, the EU has achieved little
progress towards resolving the Karabakh conflict.
"Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of
Nagorno-Karabakh continue to rise and there remains the risk of an
accidental war between them," the report says.
"Compared to the conflicts in Transnistria or Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, the EU has even less leverage in discussions over the future
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. All member states support
peaceful resolution of the conflict, yet both they and the EU's
institutions invest less time in this issue compared to the other
two protracted conflicts.
The EU as such is not present in the negotiating framework and is
represented by France in the OSCE's Minsk Group, the key framework
for discussions about the conflict. France, which co-chairs the group
along with Russia and the US, is not willing to give up its seat for
a formal EU representative.
As a result, while EU member states agree in their assessments of
the conflict, they remain largely absent from the negotiations. In
2011, the Minsk Group met no less than six times. But it was Russia
that continued to play the principal role in negotiations about the
conflict settlement. The EU restricted itself to supporting Moscow's
initiative to reach a breakthrough in negotiations via a separate
track outside the group.
However, although Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met the leaders
of Armenia and Azerbaijan in February, March and June, the meetings
yielded no progress.
The agreement on the basic framework of the future political settlement
of the conflict - the so-called Madrid Principles - remains on paper
only. Both the EU and member states in general seem determined the
isolate the Nagorno-Karabakh issue from their relations with both
Armenia and Azerbaijan. For example, they did not make discussion
with the two countries on issues such as energy or trade conditional
on progress on Nagorno-Karabakh. The EU has also failed to engage
meaningfully with the other two key players, Turkey and Russia."