European Union Monitoring Capacity in Armenia (EUMCAP) © EU
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso has today published my piece on the new European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA), a longer-term monitoring mission that will take over from the European Union Monitoring Capacity (EUMCAP) on the country’s border with Azerbaijan that ended its two-month deployment late last month.
On 23 January, the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) gave the final green light for the deployment of a dedicated long-term European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) that will monitor the country’s border with Azerbaijan. It will follow the temporary two-month temporary European Union Monitoring Capacity (EUMCAP) in Armenia that ended on 19 December last year.
“In response to Armenia’s request, EUMA […] will conduct routine patrolling and report on the situation, which will strengthen the EU’s understanding of the situation on the ground,” the EU said in a statement following the decision. It had already been preliminarily decided by the EU’s Political and Security Committee (PSC) on 10 January.
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But though the original EUMCAP had been agreed with Azerbaijan, even if it would only informally cooperate with the mission when necessary, Baku was not of the same opinion when it came to EUMA. Instead, Azerbaijan especially raised concerns that the EU had not consulted it on any future deployment.
“It will not increase security,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said earlier this month. “On the contrary, it will undermine the format of negotiation [with Armenia]. France has in fact completely isolated itself from the process.”
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Despite these concerns, however, Jospeh Borrell, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, had already stressed that EUMA’s main objective will be to “contribute to the mediation efforts in the framework of the [peace] process led by President of the European Council, Charles Michel.” Given the fragile and often volatile nature of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, such a clear statement of intent was both important and necessary.
Regardless, the 23 January FAC decision anyway appeared to be simply a matter a formality. On 4 January, the European External Action Service (EEAS) had already started to recruit staff from EU member countries for EUMA with a deadline of 19 January. The mission will last two years and will employ up to 100 personnel.
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You can read the full article in English or Italian and for my previous pieces on European Union Monitoring Capacity (EUMCAP) and the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) see here.
