Hahn Did Not Announce about Delay in Signing the Agreement between the EU and Armenia

On October 26, Union of Informed Citizens NGO issued a press release to inform about a possible delay in signing the new agreement between the European Union and Armenia.

The statement read, “Responding to the questions by Armenian civil society representatives, Hahn said that the EU-Armenia agreement will definitely be signed. At the same time, Mr. Hahn did not rule out the possibility that it might not be signed during the Eastern Partnership Summit to be held at the end of November, but, rather, later on“. Similar comments were provided to some local media outlets by UIC Programs Coordinator Daniel Ioannisyan.

However, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn did not announce about possible delay in signing the agreement during the EAP Civil Society Forum held in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

“From the very beginning I would like to clarify that the agreement with Armenia will be signed. There is no doubt about that and I think that it will surely take place during the summit or around it”, the official said in response to the relevant question by Stepan Grigoryan, Head of Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation [from 23:15].

Later on Union of Informed Citizens published a new press release in which it informed about the inaccuracies in the previous statement due to “incorrect translation”. As a period of signing the agreement, Commissioner Hahn had used the formulation “around the summit»”, which might have caused such confusion. This formulation by the EU official does not necessarily mean that the agreement may be signed later.

The text of the pre-signed EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement was published on October 13. The parties plan to sign it during the 5^th Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Brussels, or, as Mr. Hahn announced, around that time.