Armenia plans EU membership bid by 2028 as ties with Russia strain

A candidacy pegged to 2027 or 2028

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a press conference on Thursday, 5 November 2026, that Armenia will submit its candidacy for European Union membership by 2028. He linked the plan to a process his government has started to build an alternative path, one that would give Armenians a real choice about their future. He said the formal application would come in 2027 or 2028 and would open accession procedures for Armenia as a full member. The timetable came in a single press conference and offered two possible years rather than a fixed date. The announcement lands in a relationship with Moscow that has been under strain for years.

“We have started a process aimed at creating an alternative so that our people have the possibility to choose.”

Strained ties with Moscow

Relations between Moscow and Yerevan deteriorated sharply after Armenia lost a military conflict with Azerbaijan in 2020, and again after Baku retook the disputed Karabakh enclave in 2023. Armenia accused its Russian ally of failing to protect it adequately, a complaint that has shaped its turn toward Western partners since then. Russia remains Armenia's largest trading partner and a key market for its exports, and many Armenians live and work there. Yerevan also relies on Moscow for weapons and energy supplies, which keeps the two capitals tied together even as their politics diverge. This year Moscow imposed trade restrictions on Armenian agricultural exports and threatened to revisit the discounts on Russian energy prices it grants Yerevan.

Eurasian bloc, security alliance and Russia's position

Pashinyan said Armenia has no immediate intention of leaving the Eurasian Economic Union, a trade bloc that groups several Russian allies. Moscow has repeatedly said that EU membership would not be possible while Armenia remains in that union. It has also argued that Armenia should hold a referendum on whether the government should turn toward the West. Pashinyan further said his country had lost interest in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russian-led military alliance in which Armenia has frozen its participation. Under the timetable he gave, the formal EU application is still to come in 2027 or 2028.