Armenia and the European Union (EU) formally initialed the text of their new Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. The Agreement deserves the adjective “comprehensive” as it combines a wide array of substantial cooperation areas:
political and legal questions: enhancing the commonly agreed goals in foreign policy, fight against terror, human rights and the rule of law
sectoral cooperation in economic and political areas: such as IT, transport, communication, financial services, tourism, investments, research
trade and investment: focussing on removing a number of technical and other barriers of trade, while guarding the full conformity of Armenia’s commitments within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the EU’s own commitments within its trading bloc.
“This is a starting gun for international investors and the worldwide Armenian business community: Armenia now has all chances to become a stronghold of reliability in the region and an ideal hub for all who want to trade from Vladivostok to Lisbon,” says Dr Michael Kambeck, Acting Director of European Friends of Armenia (www.EuFoA.org). “This is an agreement where nobody loses and, if properly implemented, there will be only winners, inside and outside Armenia, from simple workers to established businessmen. They all should know this and have the strongest motivation to promote the implementation.”
The move comes after negotiations started in December 2015, combining and enhancing a number of goals formerly agreed between the two sides in the 1999 EU-Armenia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, in the Association Agreement abandoned in 2014, and a number of new aspects relevant for the socio-economic and political development. On 28 February 2017, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and EU Council President Donald Tusk announced the conclusion of the negotiations during a visit in Brussels.