On 5 November, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Avet Adonts stated that the process of ratification of the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was almost complete, reported arka.am.  

“The ratification process is complete, since all 27 EU member states, taking into account internal procedures, have completed the ratification process, the last was Portugal, but there are three countries - Italy, Spain and Portugal, which have not yet officially notified the EU secretariat of the completion of the ratification procedures,” Adonts added.

As for the issue of liberalising the visa regime with the EU, Adonts said that the process was still very virtual. “We have completed the implementation of the plans and the preparation of documents with almost all countries, investigated the existing problems and presented the possibilities for their solution before the start of the negotiations,” Adonts said. 

According to him, at the moment the relevant EU commissions have requested the necessary package of documents for visa regime liberalisation and that the Armenian side also presented. At the same time, he noted that not all countries were able to complete the discussion of the issue due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the war.

Adonts admitted that the dynamics between Armenia and the EU have decreased this year, but that the joint efforts made through video calls were rather effective. He also said that the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed to the EU to freeze the Eastern Partnership Program with Azerbaijan. 

The EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed in the margins of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels in November 2017 and entered into provisional application on 1 June 2018. The EU assistance to Armenia supports the objectives of the EU-Armenia CEPA. It is linked to the country's reform commitments under the CEPA and aims at improving the quality of life of the country’s citizens in a tangible and visible manner, strengthening the rule of law, as well as improving the business climate, and supporting greater connectivity between Armenia and the EU in the areas of energy and transport.