EU-Armenia: all is not lost?

The objective of the article is to determine the extent and nature of the new stage of relationship between the European Union and Armenia after the latter has joined the Eurasian Union. To attain the objective, the authors set the following tasks: 1) To analyze the nature of the Association Agreement between the EU and the Republic of Armenia; 2) To determine the reasons for not signing the agreement by the leadership of Armenia at the Vilnius summit of the "Eastern Partnership" in November 2013; 3) To identify the factors that contributed to the resumption of negotiations between the EU and Armenia on the conclusion of a new agreement in 2015; 4) To analyze the initialed agreement between the Republic of Armenia and the EU. The methodological basis of this article is the method of historical analysis, based on the analysis of processes occurring in a certain period of time, the extraction of the process, and its discussion in hindsight. In addition, content analysis is used to analyze the texts of the agreements. A problematic field of research is the formation of a modern system of international relations and the interaction of different integration processes. Therefore, the authors of the article came to the following conclusions: Since independence in 1991, the development and consolidation of Armenia's relations with the European structures, especially with the EU, has been a priority direction for the country's foreign policy. Despite this, the Armenian president refused to sign the Association Agreement at the Vilnius summit of the "Eastern Partnership" 2013, because he believed that the obstacles imposed on Armenia by that Agreement would hinder the development of its ties with the Russian Federation. The resumption of negotiations on the new Association Agreement between Armenia and the European Union was consistent both with the logic of the EU Global Strategy adopted in 2016, and was in line with Yerevan's desire to develop dialogue with the EU, but already as a member of the EAEU. The initialed in 2017 Agreement corresponds to the interests of the European Union. At the same time, the paragraphs that may contradict Armenia's existing commitments to the EAEU and CSTO were excluded from the text of the new Agreement. The future of EU-Armenia relations within the framework of the "Eastern Partnership" will depend on several issues. First of all, it will depend on the attitude of the interested parties to this European project. It is necessary to put an end to the confrontation between the EU and the EAEU. It has already led to a serious destabilization of the contemporary system of international relations. The creation of new barriers along the line of demarcation of integration associations will result in the division of the Eurasian space, which until recently has been perceived as a common space from Lisbon to Vladivostok. In addition, the rapid development of modern technologies can concretize this gap for a long time and generate new conflicts. Secondly, the European Union's ability to monitor Armenia's progress in implementing the CEPA provisions but at the same time not creating barriers to Yerevan on its way to the EAEU, will be crucial. Thirdly, in a situation when the space for maneuver is shrinking, the ability of the parties to develop new approaches and to find the necessary tools for developing cooperation in those areas of the Armenian economy, to which modernization and technological development can give impetus for further development, will be equally important.

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