Some Republicans think that the opinions of the EU ambassadors that Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Union can create obstacles to the economic cooperation between their countries and Armenia, and particularly are of no concern as with such statements the ambassadors are solving their own problems with Russia. For example, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Poland Jerzy Novakovski, expressed an opinion that “Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Union is a problem for the Armenian-Polish economic relations.”
The ambassador considers Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Union one of the reasons of the failures in the Armenian-Polish economic cooperation and expresses a concern that especially the food exporters are refusing their projects and even are reluctant to make investments in Armenia due to the emergence of new expenditures because of Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Union.
To the observation of Aravot.am that by joining the EaEU, we lose a lot, the RPA members who are the supporters of the EaEU do not worry about the ambassador’s statement, RPA faction MP Sukias Avetisyan replied, “Not much to lose but we have absolutely nothing to lose because if we compare Poland with the EaEU, then it does not compose even one-twentieth of the EaEU. In other words, there is no point of comparison, so, I do not think we should have serious concerns especially with Poland.” Mr. Avetisyan noted that the figures and the facts indicate that Armenia’s trade volume with Poland is very small, hence, no problem arises.
The ambassador’s statement gave such an assessment, “It is normal that many ambassadors of the EU countries can talk about such issues. More they are trying to solve their own problems with the EaEU and especially Russia, but prior to expressing opinions, we must look at the facts and figures and see what trade volumes we have with each country.” To our question of what he means specifically and what problems the ambassador solves with this statement, Sukias Avetisyan urged to ask personally to the Polish ambassador and insisted, “I think that Armenia’s accession to the EaEU did not affect us in any way.”
To our reminding that the ambassador has pointed out specific areas such as food market when the Polish exporters refuse to make investments in Armenia, or the problems related to the “Lyubava company activities, RPA MP countered, “Different European companies are trying to seek new markets. Let us not forget that the Russian market is closed for them, and it is normal that they should try seeking new markets. It’s not the case that we joined the EaEU and our relations with the EU countries are broke. We have expressed our readiness to continue cooperation.”
To our observation that as a result of the EU accession, however, we have not yet seen any benefits, moreover, the commodity turnover is reduced with the EaEU member countries, Mr. Avetisyan preferred not to answer, promising that later he will make analyses by the facts and figures.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
