Discussions continue in the Council of the European Union on providing Armenia with funds from the European Peace Facility, the Head of the EU delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Vassilis Maragos, told a press conference on Friday, May 10.
His comments came in response to a question regarding the EU's refusal to provide security assistance to Armenia through the European Peace Facility due to Hungary's veto.
The Ambassador also addressed the question whether the EU would make another attempt to initiate a process to support Armenia or consider supporting Armenia through alternative channels.
“During the meeting of the EU Council, we discussed with member states how to support Armenia's resilience, how to meet the needs that Armenia has formulated in the field of security. At that stage, EU member states had agreed to consider two possiilities. Firstly, to provide non-lethal assistance to Armenia through the European Peace Facility, and secondly, to increase the number of members in the EU observation mission,” the envoy said, according to Armenpress.
Maragos noted that that they were making progress with the observation mission. “The process of deploying new observers is underway. As for the EU Peace Facility, discussions continue in the council," said the EU Ambassador.
Hungary is said to be blocking the European Union from providing modest military assistance to Armenia, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service cited a diplomatic source as saying in late April.
A relevant draft document seen by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in mid-April calls for 10 million euros (about $11 million) to be provided to the Armenian military over the next two-and-a-half years. The money would mainly be spent on creating a field hospital and auxiliary facilities for a battalion-size army unit. Its allocation requires the unanimous backing of all EU member states.
The European source that did not want to be identified said Hungary has for weeks been vetoing the decision and demanding that similar aid also be allocated to Azerbaijan. EU leaders are considering meeting Budapest’s demand in hopes of overcoming the deadlock, added the source.
