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Statement

of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum on the failure to initial the Association Agreement between Armenia and the EU

06 October, 2013

The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP-CSF) expresses its solidarity and shares the disagreement and frustration expressed in the statement of the Armenian National Platform (ANP)  of the EaP-CSF on September 17th regarding the intention of the authorities of the Republic of Armenia (RA) to join the Customs Union and participate in the formation of the Eurasian Union which has led to the failure of the initialing of the Association Agreement (AA) between European Union (EU) and Armenia.

We respect the sovereign right of any Eastern Partner to choose the model and direction of integration with other states. At the same time the sudden character of the statement Serzh Sargsyan, the Armenian president, made on September 3rd with no proper political consultations and public discussions is confusing.

The Civil Society forum strictly condemns non-democratic and non-transparent processes in official decision making, as well as the external pressure brought particularly by the Russian Federation on the EaP countries, which result in such a drastic change of foreign political priorities.

In fact the significant efforts and expenditures of both the EU and the RA in holding negotiations and developing documents during past years have yielded no results. Many programmes, targeted on reform in various sectors in Armenia and on strengthening ties with the European Union and requested resources, failed to result in expected outcomes.  However the most important issue is that Armenia has lost a unique chance to deepen integration and versatile cooperation with the biggest economy of the world and the most stable region on our planet.

What has happened with Armenia is a lesson for both the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries. The success of the process strongly depends on the consistent application of the “more for more” principle, understanding of common interests and the need for multilateral cooperation within the framework of the EaP, as well as informing the public on the negotiation process and the content of the key documents. This experience shows that the EaP faces significant obstacles if there are no clear criteria of implementing  obligations which have been undertaken, and without effective cooperation between the partner countries with each other, as well as the purposeful and wide support of the process of European integration by the society. The Civil Society Forum expresses its readiness to intensify its efforts in working in all three directions.

We expect that the failure to initial the AA between the EU and Armenia will not result in the freezing of Armenia’s participation in the Eastern Partnership and a format will be found that will allow the application of the achievements of the past four years to help the country to continue moving towards reforms.

The CSF supports the efforts of the ANP in promoting the processes of European integration in the country that were envisaged by the EaP Road map and calls the authorities of the RA to increase the level and effectiveness of the dialogue with civil society and, particularly, with the ANP to ensure that the intention to join the Customs Union will not negatively affect this dialogue.

We support the request of our Armenian colleagues for the organisation of parliamentary hearings and to call for a special session of the parliament aimed at evaluating the respective statement of the president of Armenia.

We also call on the members of the Armenian parliament irrespective of their party affiliation to show that they are able to transcend their party positions on the issue of joining the Customs Union and rejecting the Association Agreement with the EU, because this choice goes far beyond the interests of separate political forces but will define the nation’s destiny for many years to come.

http://eaparmenianews.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/issue-144