Pashinyan Signals Misgivings about EU Membership Referendum

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday voiced misgivings about the idea of a referendum on Armenia’s membership of the European Union advocated by his political allies.

He said the Armenian government should clarify whether the EU is ready to admit the South Caucasus country before holding such a vote.

Pashinyan’s political team brought the issue back to the political agenda late last month amid a continuing deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations. It held a parliamentary hearing in Yerevan featuring leaders of pro-Western fringe groups loyal to the prime minister. The latter urged the government to hold the referendum within the next three months.

Parliament speaker Alen Simonyan, a key Pashinyan ally, predicted on June 26 that the vote will take place “sometime in the near future.”

“If we hold a referendum today, we need to campaign,” Pashinyan told a conference in Yerevan. “When we campaign, people will ask us whether the EU wants that or not. They will tell me: ‘You declared that Armenia is ready to be as close to the EU as the EU is ready. Now how ready is the EU?’ Can I answer that question today? No, I can’t.”

Pashinyan also said that the outcome of recent elections held in the EU and some of its member states is raising more questions about the wisdom of applying for membership in the 27-nation bloc. He seemed to allude to the strong showing of far-right Euroskeptic parties in those polls.

In a nonbinding resolution adopted in March the European Parliament seemed to encourage Yerevan to make a membership bid. However, no EU government has voiced support for such a prospect.

Armenian opposition figures maintain that Armenia has a near-zero chance of being ever admitted to the EU. They claim that Pashinyan wants to use the issue to trick Armenians into endorsing his appeasement policy towards Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan’s administration is also facing warnings from Russia, Armenia’s main trading partner and supplier of natural gas. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said last week that Armenia will lose tariff-free access to the Russian market and other economic privileges granted by Moscow if its government does seek EU membership.