ArmInfo.The adoption by the RA parliament of the draft law "On the beginning of the process of Armenia's accession to the European Union" will not mean that the country will immediately become an EU member. This was stated at a briefing on February 13 by the Chairman of the RA National Assembly Committee on European Integration Arman Yeghoyan. He noted that out of four neighbors of Armenia, two - Georgia and Turkey - are candidates for accession to this structure.
In total, nine European countries are candidates for possible accession to the EU. The adoption by the country's parliament in the first reading of the draft law "On the beginning of the process of Armenia's accession to the European Union" means the start of the process of obtaining the status of a candidate for EU accession and is the subject of political negotiations. Yeghoyan noted that the EU has adopted an expansion policy, the details of which are being negotiated.
The day before, commenting on the adoption of the draft law by the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia in the first reading, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov stated that the desire to join the European Union is the sovereign right of Armenia, but for now the people of this country continue to receive dividends from membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). "Of course, the Armenians themselves and everyone else will have to figure out to what extent this is a mutual desire, how the Europeans themselves feel about this. For now, we proceed from the fact that Armenia continues to receive dividends from membership in the EAEU in the processes of Eurasian economic integration, and these dividends are more than obvious," Peskov said.
Touching directly on the law on the process of the country's accession to the European Union, the press secretary of the Russian president stated: "Apparently, there are certain political forces in Armenia that believe that orientation toward the European Union, probably in the absence of a clear understanding of the interest of the European Union itself in this, that this orientation will give some additional dividends for the country itself and for the interests of the people of this country." According to Peskov, attention should also be paid to the complexity of the process of admission to the European Union. "We know the experience of many countries that were put in a long queue in this process, which is measured in decades," the Kremlin representative said.