Armenia’s accession to the EU will not bring it economic benefits: Andrey Klimov

Andrey Klimov, deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, commented to Alpha News on Nikol Pashinyan’s, Armenian Prime Minister, statement about the republic’s intention to begin the process of applying for membership in the European Union in the near future.

According to Klimov, the European Union is currently experiencing serious crises, and joining it will not bring economic benefits to Armenia.

“Frankly speaking, the European Union is not the kind of union that, in my view, decent people should even consider joining right now. The European Union’s external debt currently amounts to more than 17 trillion dollars. That’s an absolutely enormous sum. The UK left the European Union, and it wasn’t for nothing. Today, they’re facing a huge number of crises,” he said.

According to the senator, Armenia is becoming a tool for the current EU leadership in a political game, and the prospects promised to Yerevan are complicated by objective economic and logistical factors.

“For the current leadership of the European Union, Armenia is a kind of toy that allows them to confuse the minds of both those outside the European Union and those inside the European Union for a certain period of time. In my view, this does not bring any economic benefit. It is enough to look at the map to understand that all these prospects have a huge number of obstacles, including logistical ones,” the senator noted.

Klimov also emphasized that Armenia’s accession to the EU would effectively rule out the possibility of continuing to derive benefits from the Eurasian Economic Union.

“If this is somehow implemented in practice, then, naturally, Armenia will no longer be able to derive benefits from the Eurasian Economic Union simply because it is technically impossible, legally impossible. These are two different unions; they are structured differently, and it is impossible to be a member of two unions of this kind at the same time. This is not nit‑picking, it is an objective reality,” Klimov said.

According to the senator, the issue of Armenia’s possible accession to the EU should be resolved not behind closed doors, but by Armenian society itself.

“If Pashinyan is doing this, then I don’t know what’s going on in his head, but he is doing great harm to the Armenian nation, in my opinion.” “I really hope that the proposals that have been put forward from Moscow, and not only from Moscow, regarding the need to hold a referendum will still be heard by a healthy part of Armenian society, because such issues cannot be resolved behind closed doors, in closed‑door meetings, with the help of certain leaders of the executive branch. Ultimately, it is the majority of the Armenian people who must make this decision consciously,” Klimov concluded.