The proposal was recently made by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. A spokeswoman for Kallas told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on January 10 that the member states have already welcomed it. She said the extension of the mission will be formalized and announced “in the coming weeks.”
RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak reported that the Brussels-based ambassadors of the 27 EU nations, who endorsed Kallas’s proposal, also decided to keep the mission’s mandate and size unchanged. It will thus continue to comprise 165 international observers and analysts as well as 44 Armenian staffers.
The mission strongly opposed by Azerbaijan and Russia was launched in February 2023 with the aim of preventing or minimizing ceasefire violations on the Armenian side of the long and heavily militarized border. Its initial two-year mandate ends next month.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly accused the EU monitors of spying on its troops and destabilizing the situation in the conflict zone. A senior Azerbaijani official demanded their withdrawal on December 12. Baku has been trying to block their continued deployment through a corresponding clause in a draft peace treaty discussed with Yerevan.
The EU has denied the accusations, saying that the number of armed incidents along border areas has decreased considerably since the launch of the mission. The Armenian government has also praised the monitors’ record. But it has still not publicly clarified whether it has asked the EU to extend their presence.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has insisted, at least until now, that the monitors should leave only demarcated sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Only a small section of it has been delimited and demarcated to date.
Yerevan had requested the EU deployment after accusing Russia and other ex-Soviet allies of refusing to defend Armenia against Azerbaijani attacks in 2022. Moscow has claimed that the mission is part of U.S. and EU efforts to drive Russia out of the South Caucasus.