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EU/ARMENIA : EU READY TO COMPROMISE WITH YEREVAN ON TRADE DEAL
Europolitics (daily in English)
September 5, 2013 Thursday
Lenaïc Vaudin d?Imecourt
Armenia will be joining the Russian-led Eurasian Union, President Serzh
Sargsyan announced, on 3 September - a move that should killoff all
hopes of the country signing a free trade agreement with the European
Union at the Eastern Partnership summit in late November. But the
EU could be ready to negotiate with Yerevan so it can benefit from
trade preferences from both the EU and Russia.
Sargsyan confirmed his decision after a meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin in Moscow. "This decision is not a rejection of our
dialogue with the European institutions," he noted.
By choosing to join the Eurasian Union with Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan, Armenia is supposedly blocking the signing of the trade
deal with the EU, which has warned several times that the two deals
were incompatible. "They will not be able to sign both agreements
due to different tariff requirements," Lithuania's Foreign Minister
Linas Linkevicius told BNS, the Baltic news agency.
"We look forward to understanding better from Armenia what their
intentions are and how they wish to ensure compatibility," the EU's
enlargement spokesperson said, adding that the trade deal "could be
compatible with economic cooperation with the members of Commonwealth
of Independent States". For the time being, compatibility would not
be possible, an EU source told Europolitics. But the Commission would
be ready to negotiate the terms of said compatibility.
Armenia and the EU wrapped up negotiations of the trade deal in July.
It was expected to be finalised upon signature of a larger bilateral
association agreement, which was to be initialled at the 28-29 November
Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Europolitics (daily in English)
September 5, 2013 Thursday
Lenaïc Vaudin d?Imecourt
Armenia will be joining the Russian-led Eurasian Union, President Serzh
Sargsyan announced, on 3 September - a move that should killoff all
hopes of the country signing a free trade agreement with the European
Union at the Eastern Partnership summit in late November. But the
EU could be ready to negotiate with Yerevan so it can benefit from
trade preferences from both the EU and Russia.
Sargsyan confirmed his decision after a meeting with Russian President
Vladimir Putin in Moscow. "This decision is not a rejection of our
dialogue with the European institutions," he noted.
By choosing to join the Eurasian Union with Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan, Armenia is supposedly blocking the signing of the trade
deal with the EU, which has warned several times that the two deals
were incompatible. "They will not be able to sign both agreements
due to different tariff requirements," Lithuania's Foreign Minister
Linas Linkevicius told BNS, the Baltic news agency.
"We look forward to understanding better from Armenia what their
intentions are and how they wish to ensure compatibility," the EU's
enlargement spokesperson said, adding that the trade deal "could be
compatible with economic cooperation with the members of Commonwealth
of Independent States". For the time being, compatibility would not
be possible, an EU source told Europolitics. But the Commission would
be ready to negotiate the terms of said compatibility.
Armenia and the EU wrapped up negotiations of the trade deal in July.
It was expected to be finalised upon signature of a larger bilateral
association agreement, which was to be initialled at the 28-29 November
Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.