The two top European Union officials have congratulated Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on his My Step alliance’s landslide victory in Armenia’s parliamentary elections held on December 9.
“The elections were held with respect for fundamental freedoms and enjoyed broad public trust,” Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said in a joint letter made public on Friday.
“You received a strong mandate for reforms from the citizens of Armenia. The European Union stands ready to support you in your reform agenda,” they added.
An EU foreign policy spokeswoman likewise praised the Armenian authorities’ handling of the snap elections in a December 10 statement. She said the EU looks forward to “working with the democratically elected new Parliament and the future Government.”
Tusk and Juncker already expressed the EU’s readiness to help Armenia’s new government implement sweeping reforms promised by Pashinian when they met with the latter in Brussels in July.
Shortly after those talks Pashinian criticized the 28-nation bloc for not boosting its financial assistance to Armenia following this spring’s “velvet revolution” that brought him to power. The head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, Piotr Switalski, countered at the time that Pashinian’s government needs to propose specific reform-oriented projects before demanding greater aid.
In their congratulatory message, Tusk and Juncker also stressed the significance of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed by the EU and Armenia in November 2017.
They described the 350-page agreement as an “ambitious blueprint for reforms.” “It will also support a resilient economic and social system conducive to building Armenia's prosperity,” they said.
On Wednesday Pashinian chaired a meeting of an interagency government commission tasked with coordinating Armenia’s compliance with the CEPA. “I am calling on you to work more actively towards the agreement’s implementation,” he told its members.
The CEPA commits Yerevan to carrying out political reforms and gradually “approximating” Armenian economic laws and regulations to those of the EU.
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