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The European Union’s intervention in elections in Armenia has breached its own rules and laws on election interference, according to a damning new report.
The new report, Interference by design, by law firm Amsterdam & Partners, warns that “the EU has moved from silence about the Armenian government’s democratic backsliding to active, non-neutral, and structurally one-sided engagement in Armenia’s pre-election environment.”
It goes on to accuse the EU of crossing the line “from legitimate cooperation into indirect electoral interference and violation of international and EU law.”
The report says that the European Union’s actions before the election, including over €300 million in financial support, sending a Hybrid Rapid Response Team, running “counter-disinformation efforts”, and holding a summit of 44 European leaders in Yerevan a month before the vote, amount to sabotaging Armenia’s electoral process.
It continues: “The criticism is not about engagement itself, but about engagement that is one-sided when inclusivity is required, lacks transparency where openness is needed, is unconditional when conditions are expected, and remains silent on democratic abuses when the EU should speak out for democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.”
The international lawyers say that instead of making its support conditional on meeting democratic standards set by CEPA (the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership) and the Strategic Agenda, the European Union instead increased its cooperation with Pashinyan’s administration. They argue that its involvement in Armenia “is not neutral support for democracy. Instead, it is one-sided, working only through the current government”.
Their analysis reveals five main areas which demonstrate the EU’s work amounts to electoral interference.
- Branding all opposition as Russian propaganda – which Pashinyan’s government has exploited to crack down further on political opponents
- The EU’s lack of transparency on what it regards as “foreign interference”
- Claiming to have been invited by a would be authoritarian is not a valid reason under international law
- There is no way to hold the EU accountable for its role in Armenia
- Double standards and the consistency obligation when comparing EU actions against Hungary and its blind eye to Pashinyan’s abuses
Armenia will go to the polls on 7th June, with many Armenians set to vote out the ruling Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, who has presided over serious violations of Armenian law and international human rights standards.
This report is the second in a series by Amsterdam & Partners on the perilous state of democracy in Armenia. The first report, Armenia’s Authoritarian Turn, reported how Pashinyan was routinely flouting democratic norms and setting himself up as an effective dictator. It was updated in February to reflect how these patterns were becoming more severe.
These allegations, noted by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, are emphasised by opposition parties and major Armenian civil rights organisations.
The latest report notes how “the International Observatory for Democracy in Armenia, which included Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, found evidence of politically motivated arrests, misuse of vague laws, andgovernment interference in the Church’s independence.”
Against this backdrop, the report asks the EU to apply its rules correctly and to “follow its own legal requirements” over its involvement in Armenia. However, it warns that instead of being neutral the EU is only demonstrating “selective support” that gives Pashinyan everything he needs to strengthen the ruling party and ignores any attempt to protect opposition groups.
The law firm highlights sixteen recommendations to resolve this clear problem, with several immediate measures including:
- Suspension of the Hybrid Rapid Response Team pending an independent review
- Publish the classified Political Framework for a Crisis Approach with Armenia
- Engage with rights groups such as the International Observatory for Democracy in Armenia
- Publicly condemn the recent Electoral Code Amendments
- Apply conditionality to remaining EU funding, dependent on the cessation of politically motivated prosecutions