A draft of the European Union’s Vilnius summit declaration acknowledges the European “aspirations” of its six Eastern Partnership countries but has left a blank space regarding EU-Armenia relations, RFE/RL Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak reports.

“No wording is ready yet for Armenia after Yerevan announced that it wants to join a Russian-led Customs Union. EU diplomats say a memorandum of understanding of future cooperation might be signed instead,” Jozwiak notes. 

Instead, the progress made in Association Agreement negotiations with Azerbaijan is also welcomed, with Brussels indicating its readiness to commence talks on a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) pact.

There is also a paragraph in brackets welcoming the signature of an Association Agreement together with a DCFTA pact with Ukraine and the initialing of the same agreement with Georgia and Moldova.

The current draft states that the “summit acknowledges the sovereign right of each member state to choose its ambition and final goal of its relations with the European Union.” 

And very little is so far mentioned about the various frozen conflicts in the partner countries, but Georgia has inserted a line which reads, “Participants emphasize the need for the full implementation of the mandate of the EUMM (European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia) of the whole territory of Georgia and to its future strengthening and reiterate their support for the Geneva international discussions.”

“It is likely that Moldova will try to insert something similar about Transdniester, whereas it is unclear if Armenia or Azerbaijan want to mention the frozen conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Rikard Jozwiak reports.