The South Caucasus country has previously floated the idea of joining the bloc as part of a general shift toward the West.
Armenia’s government officially endorsed a draft bill on Thursday, initiating its process to joining the European Union, according to domestic media.
The bill will now be presented to the country’s parliament. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned on Thursday that the public should not expect rapid accession into the EU, underlining that it would first need approval via a referendum.
The day before the cabinet backed the bill, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced the country could sign a new partnership with Brussels in the upcoming months, which could include visa liberalisation.
In recent years, the former Soviet Union country has deepened ties with the West and drifted away from Moscow.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state-run TASS news agency that “This (intention to join the EU) is definitely the sovereign right of the country.”
However, Peskov said, Armenia could not join the EU whilst remaining part of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), an economic bloc of five post-Soviet states in Eurasia.
“We are certain that Armenia’s membership in the EAEU is doing them a lot of good,” Peskov concluded.
Joining the 27-country EU can be an arduous, years-long process that only three other former members of the Soviet Union — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — have already completed.
Armenia’s path to EU membership might not be straightforward. The landlocked country doesn’t share a border with the EU and remains heavily economically dependent on Moscow. It also hosts a Russian military base.
