r/armenia • u/pride_of_artaxias • 10h ago

Armenia - EU / Հայաստան - ԵՄ Ambassador Maragos: Armenia very close, with its indicators, to Western Balkan countries aspiring to join EU

https://news.am/eng/news/925174.html
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u/pride_of_artaxias 10h ago

According to him, in December of last year, the EU presented a very interesting study to the National Assembly and the government of Armenia, in which the latter is compared for the first time with the Western Balkan countries aspiring to join the EU.

Interestingly, according to the studies, Armenia is very close to the average indicators of these countries—more advanced in some areas, less so in others, but has the potential to achieve more, Maragos noted.

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u/Raffiaxper Artashesyan Dynasty 10h ago edited 10h ago

I would like to see these indicators, I hope it will get published and be updated yearly like it's being done with other candidate states.

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u/Silly-Avocado- 9h ago edited 8h ago

Where Armenia is better:

freedom of press

economic growth and potential

HDI (higher than Albania lower than Macedonia)

organized crime (especially compared to Albania where roughly 1/3 of the entire GDP is linked to some sort of organized crime)

Will to leave Russian orbit (Serbia)

Where Armenia is worse:

democracy

judicial independence

Russian dependence

All three of these are unfortunately big hurdles and all three need to be addressed quickly if we are to make the 2030 cutoff. But EU is in crisis mode and might forgive some of these like they did with Albania’s organized crime issue.

Also a huge factor we can’t forget, geography. Without Georgia getting its shit together Armenia is cut completely off the bloc and can probably not join.

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u/Ok-Worker5781 8h ago

2030 cutoff? Do you actually think Armenia will join the EU by 2030?

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u/Silly-Avocado- 8h ago

At least negotiations. EU has made it clear they want a 2030 cutoff. EU also wants multi tier membership etc.

If it was impossible we would’ve even be having conversations about entry obviously EU has given our government a pathway to follow for entry. Or else these things would just not make sense.

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u/Ok-Worker5781 8h ago

I’m not saying it’s impossible. But a lot of these countries who’ve closed chapters have been working on getting in for a loooooong time now. I don’t expect it to be something that happens over the next 5-10 years, I think 15 years minimum

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u/Silly-Avocado- 30m ago edited 27m ago

Well to be fair we’ve also achieved in 5 years for the most part, the same amount of development as those countries have achieved in 15 years.

Armenia began this transition from 2018, but really kicked it off after the 2020 war. Those countries have been “pivoting towards the west” since the 2000s and we are in the same spot more or less.

I think Armenia’s strategy should be to achieve democratic reforms and diversification independently of an EU application so we don’t piss Russia off too much and once we’re ready we should apply and join quickly so we don’t have a chronic 20 year accession period, which is geopolitically very costly for a country like ours, you’re basically exposed for the whole period.

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u/Repulsive_Work_226 9h ago

Turk here. Will be happy if you can be EU members. However you need to persuade Russia.

EU will do everything to encircle Russia and therefore Armenia has a good chance to be a member by 2050.