BRUSSELS -- The European Union and Armenia have agreed on a new pact tightening political ties, more than three years after Yerevan walked away from a more far-reaching political and commercial deal with the EU to join the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union.

Talks on the agreement concluded during a visit to Brussels by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian on February 27.

It is expected to be signed later this year, possibly in May.

Armenia negotiated an Association Agreement that included a free-trade deal with the EU in 2013, only to make a U-turn that same year and reject it under pressure from Moscow.

The negotiations on a new agreement with the EU started in December 2015.

It is less ambitious than the agreement that was abandoned in 2013, most notably lacking a free trade area component -- which Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine now have as part of their agreements with the EU. But it will upgrade political relations between Brussels and Yerevan, which are currently based on a Partnership and Cooperation agreement that entered into force in 1999.

Armenia's fierce rival, Azerbaijan, started talks on a new political agreement with the EU earlier this month. </s> At a press briefing today in Brussels with European Council President Donald Tusk, visiting Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced that Armenia had reached a new Framework Agreement with European Union.

According to a statement released by Sargsyan’s press office, the Armenian president and Tusk had a private meeting before the briefing, during which the two discussed the process of reforms in Armenia, the upcoming parliamentary election, and the Karabakh conflict settlement process.

“I again wish to express my thanks to the president of the European Council and our good friend Mr. Donal Tusk for inviting me to Brussels and for our frank and substantive discussion,” Sargsyan said at the press briefing.

While no specifics regarding the new Framework Agreement were provided, Sargsyan said the two also discussed other issues on the Armenia-EU agenda, as well as regional and international developments. </s> Baku. 1 March. REPORT.AZ/ European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, European Commission Vice-President Federica Mogherini is on a visit to Armenia.

According to the information, EU official will meet with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan, as well as the representatives of political parties and civil society in the parliament. </s> Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan today discussed steps being taken in Armenia to spur democratic reforms with European People’s Party (EPP) President Joseph Daul during a meeting in Brussels.

Sargsyan and Daul also discussed Armenia’s desire for developing stronger relations with the European Union.

Given that Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia is an observer member of the EPP, the Armenian president and Daul also discussed avenues to strengthen cooperation between the two parties, as well as cooperation on international platforms.

Sargsyan told Daul that Armenia agrees with the position of the OSCE Minsk Group that there is no other option for a settlement of the Karabakh conflict other than a peaceful one. </s> Weeks of crisis in Armenia have ended with the Armenian parliament’s election of opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan Prime Minister.

He was the only candidate after it became clear that the ruling Republican party’s attempts to install its own candidate in place of its retired leader Serzh Sargsyan – whose attempt to appoint himself Prime Minister triggered the crisis – was unacceptable to large sections of the Armenian public.

Almost the first steps Pashinyan has taken as Armenia’s new leader is pledge to continue Armenia’s military alliance with Russia – which he says (correctly) is essential for Armenia’s security – and say that Armenia will remain a member of the Russian led Eurasian Union.

Pashinyan has also said that he intends to attend the forthcoming Eurasian Union summit meeting, where he intends to meet Russian President Putin for the first time.

Pashinyan has expressed opposition in the past to Armenia’s membership of the Eurasian Union. That will undoubtedly lead some to suspect that his recent pledges to continue Armenia’s alliance with Russia and to keep Armenia inside the Eurasian Union are cynical manoeuvres intended to buy him time whilst he builds up his power base so that he can chip away at the links to Russia later.

I take a different view. I think it more likely that Pashinyan’s earlier criticisms were simply intended to distinguish him from Sargsyan and the Republicans, and now that he has achieved his purpose of becoming Armenia’s Prime Minister they will be quietly forgotten.

Even if that is wrong, the very fact that Pashinyan has felt obliged to make these pledges as soon as it became clear that he would become Prime Minister speaks for itself.

The simple fact is that Pashinyan would almost certainly not have become Armenia’s Prime Minister if he had not made these pledges. Quite simply there is no critical mass in Armenia of opponents of the nation’s alliance with Russia sufficient to propel to power a politician who pledges to end that alliance. Far too many Armenians realise that given Armenia’s difficult geopolitical environment the alliance with Russia is – as Pashinyan says – essential for Armenia’s security to make it possible for an Armenian politician who wishes to end that alliance to gain power.

That immediately limits what Pashinyan can do, even if he secretly does wish to break with Russia, which as it happens I strongly doubt.

Donate When you donate €20 or more, we'll send you our custom-made mug FREE! Your donations help us expose media lies and keep the fight at their doorstep. Will you help expose the lies of the mainstream media? As a reader of The Duran, you are well aware of all the propaganda and disinformation reported by the mainstream media. You know how important it is to bring real news to light. Please support The Duran and help us keep reporting on news that is fair, balanced, and real. </s> The upper house of Dutch Parliament has approved ratification of a pact between the European Union and Ukraine, despite voters in the Netherlands rejecting the so-called Association Agreement in an advisory referendum last year.

Dutch senators approved ratification in a vote Tuesday, three months after the lower house of Parliament gave it the green light. The 27 other European Union member states already have ratified the pact, which aims to boost trade and fight corruption.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says the vote "sends an important signal from the Netherlands and the entire European Union to our Ukrainian friends: Ukraine's place is in Europe."

Dutch lawmakers approved the deal after Prime Minister Mark Rutte got assurances from EU leaders that it is not a stepping stone to EU membership. </s> "I came forward with an initiative today to sign a framework memorandum on [Moldova's] cooperation with the EAEU…I asked President Vladimir Putin to consider the possibility of Moldova becoming an observer at the Eurasian Economic Commission in the EAEU," Dodon said following talks with Putin in Moscow.

Dodon stressed that Moldova's association agreement with the European Union, signed in 2014, had failed to meet the expectations and led to the loss of the country's share on the Russian market and the drop in exports volume to the EU.

"I do not rule out that following the next parliamentary elections it will be the position of the parliamentary majority…to scrap this deal, and I will support this position," the Moldovan president said.. </s> Parliament’s recommendation to negotiators working on the EU-Azerbaijan Comprehensive Agreement, passed by 564 votes to 69, with 47 abstentions, calls on the Council, EU Commission and the EU foreign policy chief to:
• ensure that the future agreement is ambitious and delivers tangible and concrete benefits to both sides, not only for large companies, but also for SMEs and citizens of the EU and of Azerbaijan;
• ensure that the deepening of EU-Azerbaijan relations is conditional upon it upholding and respecting democracy, the rule of law, good governance, human rights and fundamental freedoms,
• remind the Azerbaijani authorities that no comprehensive agreement will be ratified with a country that does not respect fundamental EU values and rights,
• ensure, before the negotiations are concluded, that Azerbaijan releases its political prisoners and prisoners of conscience,
• help Azerbaijan to develop a strong framework to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms and ensure that it respects the right to freedom of peaceful assembly,
• support reform of the judiciary aimed at ensuring its impartiality and independence from the executive,
• put in place specific provisions to help Azerbaijan to fight economic crime, including corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, and back investigations into laundering schemes, notably the “Laundromat” affair, and
• further support free and pluralistic media in Azerbaijan with editorial independence from dominant political and oligarchic groups and in line with EU standards.

MEPs hope that if negotiations advance speedily and all key conditions are met the new agreement could be signed before the next EU-Eastern Partnership summit in 2019. They also urge the EU side to ensure that the new agreement does not take effect provisionally until after the European Parliament has given its consent.

Parliament’s rapporteur Norica NICOLAI (ALDE, RO) said: “The EU is Azerbaijan’s top trading partner and Azerbaijan is a strategic energy partner for the EU – it is high time to update the framework for our relations with a comprehensive agreement. Today’s vote shows that the European Parliament will remain very attentive to developments in Azerbaijan and I hope we can work together to ensure that the necessary progress in terms of democratic standards can be achieved before the conclusion of negotiations.”

EU-Azerbaijan relations are governed by the 1999 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. Negotiations for a new agreement were launched on February 2017. The EU is Azerbaijan’s top trading partner and its biggest export and import market, accounting for 48.6% of Azerbaijan’s total trade and providing its largest source of foreign direct investment. </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow speaks for the search for mutually acceptable ways to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of earlier adopted decisions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

"Of course, we exchanged views on the situation in the Transcaucasus, including the current state of affairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. Russia is in favor of continuing to seek mutually acceptable solutions to this conflict, in full conformity with those documents, which were signed with the participation of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in recent years and the leaders of the three co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group — Russia, the US and France," Lavrov said after talks with Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian.

He said there was no alternative to the current format of co-chairs of the Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh.

The conflict escalated in April, with Armenia and Azerbaijan accusing each other of provocations and attacks. On April 5, Baku and Yerevan signed a ceasefire in Moscow following Russian mediation, yet hostilities continued.

On June 20, 2016, the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in St. Petersburg where they reaffirmed their commitment to achieve steady progress in political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed to increase the number of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors working in the conflict zone.
Armenia and the European Union agree on a new pact to boost ties between the two. It is expected to be signed later this year. This comes after Armenia rejected an Association Agreement in 2013.