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EU launches Association Agreement talks with the three South Caucasus states

On July 15th, 16th and 19th the EU began Association Agreement (AA) talks with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia respectively. The agreements stemming from EU’s Eastern Partnership program for six former Soviet republics, are based on joint commitments to a set of shared values and will cover a wide range of areas, including political dialogue, justice, freedom and security, as well as trade and cooperation in sectoral policies. The goal of the AA is to achieve closer political association and gradual economic integration between the EU and the three Southern Caucasian countries. The EU is already negotiating similar agreements with Ukraine and Moldova.

Georgia
Visiting Georgia, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton formally opened the negotiations with Tbilisi together with President Saakashvili. ‘Georgia can rest assured that the EU will continue to provide support in advancing democracy, rule of law and governance particularly under the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership,’ Ashton said in a statement ahead of her visit. She also reiterated EU’s full support of Georgia’s territorial integrity but urged Tbilisi to ‘reengage with the populations in the conflict regions in accordance with its recently adopted Action Plan, in the interest of people affected’, while stressing the importance of EU’s involvement in the format of its Monitoring Mission on the conflict borders.

Azerbaijan
In Azerbaijan, Head of the Unit for Relations with Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Southern Caucasus at the Directorate General for External Affairs of the European Commission – leading the delegation to Azerbaijan - John Kjaer also mentioned conflict resolution during the formal opening of the AA negotiations, saying ‘the EU has the potential to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict’. Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev stated that the AA provides for deepening the political and economic dialogue between Azerbaijan and the EU, cooperation in the field of international security, stability and peace in South Caucasus.

Armenia
In Yerevan, head of EU’s negotiating team for Armenia, Gunnar Wiegand (acting director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus, and Central Asia, in the Commission's Directorate-General for External Relations), called the AA ‘ambitious and far-reaching’, adding that it ‘will have a lasting effect on the way this country organizes its economy and the way we drive forward the reform process together in order to get Armenia ever closer to the European Union.’ The chief Armenian negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Karine Kazinian, noted: ‘we have already identified the areas from which we will start, and it is difficult to stay how long the process will take’. She added, however, that ‘the important thing is that negotiations have started and we are prepared for that path […] We are also ready to make every effort to follow the guidelines that we have with the EU and bring the process to a successful end.’

Sources: EuroEast, Armenia Liberty, Today.az, Civil.ge

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