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EU: Armenia Was Blackmailed

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  • EU: Armenia Was Blackmailed

    EU: ARMENIA WAS BLACKMAILED

    Radio Liberty: Armenia's surprise pledge to join the customs union of
    Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will thwart its Association Agreement
    with the European Union, EU officials confirmed late on Tuesday.

    News reports quoted Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius of Lithuania,
    the current EU president, as saying that Armenian membership in the
    Russian-led union will be incompatible with the key element of he
    planned agreement: the creation of a "deep and comprehensive free
    trade area" with the EU.

    "We respect any choice of countries but they cannot enter both
    organizations at the same time because of different tariff
    requirements," Linkevicius told the AFP news agency.

    Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country has been a key
    backer of association deals with ex-Soviet states, made similar
    comments on Twitter. "Seems as if Armenia will break talks on free
    trade agreement with EU and integrate with Russia instead," he wrote.

    Armenia negotiated 4 years to get Association Agreement with EU. Now
    President [Serzh Sarkisian] prefers Kremlin to Brussels," Bildt added
    in a separate entry.

    Elmar Brok, the German chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign
    Affairs Committee, likewise said Armenia's Association Agreement
    will not be signed any time soon. "I feel very sorry because it is
    legally -- because of certain conditions -- not possible to be a full
    member both of the Customs Union and have an association agreement
    and free trade area agreement with the European Union," he told an
    RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels.

    Brok blamed Russia for Yerevan's U-turn that was announced after
    Sarkisian's talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "A small
    country like Armenia was blackmailed to make such a decision," he said.

    Asked about the future of Armenia's relationship with the EU, the
    lawmaker said, "There will be a relationship as we have with every
    country but not a relationship with a European perspective."

    The European Commission, the EU's executive body, has not yet
    officially reacted to the development. A spokesman for EU Enlargement
    Commissioner Stefan Fuele told RFE/RL that he is "currently consulting
    our Armenian partners on the latest developments" and that the
    "potential implications" will be examined when "all the necessary
    details" emerge.

    Radio Liberty 09:29 04/09/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:
    http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/politics/view/30803

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