European Parliament: at the base of the Armenia-EU agreement is not  the desire to compete with a third side, in particular, with Russia

ArmInfo.Yet there are no concrete terms for signing agreement on comprehensive and expanded partnership between Armenia and the European Union. Head of the EU Delegation in Armenia Piotr Switalski told during the press conference today,  adding that technical improvements are being done on the document currently. 

At that, he stressed that the Armenian side for itself set a deadline  for signing before the November Summit of the Eastern Partnership in  Brussels. "Let's hope that this will be the case, and the agreement  will be finalized in the second half of this year," he said, adding  that at present one of the most important parts of the Agreement is  already prepared for the Partnership Priorities Treaty, which should  receive mandatory approval from all the member countries for the  further continuation of the process.

"At present, the document has been sent for consideration to all  member countries. Let's hope that in a week the document will receive  a "green light", - said Switalski, adding that after reaching the  final consensus, the financial side of the document will be  discussed.

In his turn, the head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the  European Parliament David McAllister, who is in Yerevan within the  framework of the regional visit, stressed that this time Armenia is  determined to sign the Agreement with the EU. "I saw this  determination during the meeting with the Armenian President, which,  by the way, lasted much longer than the recorded one," he noted,  excluding the possibility of repeating this time the scenario of  2013, when after three years of negotiations with the EU, Armenia  unexpectedly refused to sign the Association Agreement and Declared  about the intention of Eurasian integration.

"I want everyone to understand that at the base of the Agreement on a  comprehensive and expanded partnership between Armenia and the  European Union is not the desire to compete with any of the other  actors in the region, in particular, with Russia. Consequently,  Armenia has no reason to refuse to sign the document. The agreement  is based on democratic and universal values, "the European  parliamentarian stressed, assuring that Armenia is an important  partner for the EU, which is encouraged by the prospect of signing a  new agreement with it.

According to McAllister, the signing of the new agreement will  facilitate the activation of cooperation between EU and Armenia,  which, remarkably, is an active actor in the Eurasian Economic Union  against this background. "And this means that the EU  Eastern  Partnership program is a really effective and effective format for  its partners," he said.

To note,  in March 2017 Armenia and the EU initialed the Agreement on  Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership. It is noteworthy that before  the new negotiations and after the republic's joining the EEU, the  relations between Yerevan and Brussels entered a somewhat passive  phase, since before that, Armenia, after three years of negotiations,  abruptly refused to sign the Association Agreement with the EU in  favor of Eurasian integration. Some experts, then, predicted the  complete cooling of relations between Yerevan and Brussels.