RSC HAILS EU MANDATE TO OPEN NEGOTIATIONS WITH ARMENIA

In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Armenian Service on 12 October, RSC Director Richard Giragosian hailed the EU’s official mandate to start formal negotiations over a new legal framework for relations between Armenian and the European Union.

In the interview, Giragosian noted that despite the Armenian president’s controversial decision to sacrifice an Association Agreement, and related deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) agreement in 2013, “both Brussels and Yerevan have demonstrated a new sense of political will,” representing “a rare second chance to restore and repair Armenian relations with the EU.”  He added that “although the new agreement will not be on the same level of cooperation in economic terms, there are enough areas beyond the framework of Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union to deepen and expand trade and economic ties.”