Armenia Parliament Votes For Starting EU Accession Bid

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published March 26, 2025 | 07:29 PM

Armenia's parliament passed a bill Wednesday launching Yerevan's bid for European Union membership, as the historically Russia-allied country drifts further away from Moscow's orbit

Yerevan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Mar, 2025) Armenia's parliament passed a bill Wednesday launching Yerevan's bid for European Union membership, as the historically Russia-allied country drifts further away from Moscow's orbit.

The landlocked Caucasus nation has grown increasingly close to the West, frustrated by what it says was Moscow's failure to protect it from arch-foe Azerbaijan.

Adopted in final reading with 64 votes in favour -- all from lawmakers of the ruling Civil Contract party -- and seven opposition MPs voting against, the bill calls on the Armenian government to initiate the process of EU accession.

In January, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan backed the bill, but said its adoption "doesn't literally mean Armenia will be joining the EU, because that cannot be done through a law or government decision -- the decision on that can only be made through a referendum."

So far, no EU member state has publicly endorsed the idea of Armenia's potential accession to the 27-nation bloc.

But the EU's Enlargement Commissioner, Marta Kos, said in January that Brussels "will accept the membership application if it is made".