Authorities in Yerevan have deepened ties with the West in recent years, at the expense of traditionally close relations with Russia, which Armenia has accused of failing to defend it from longtime rival Azerbaijan. 

The bill, passed on Thursday, was drawn up following a successful petition. 

In a document seen by the Reuters news agency, the government backed the bill’s progress in parliament, saying it would represent “the beginning of the accession process of the Republic of Armenia to the European Union.” 

Brussels did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Three other former members of the Soviet Union—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—joined the EU in 2004, after going through a years-long negotiating process requiring harmonization with EU legislation and other measures. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan underlined to his cabinet on Thursday that the public should not expect rapid accession to the EU and that such a move would in any case require approval by referendum. 

Back in 2023, Pashinyan told the European Parliament that Armenia was ready to move as close to the EU as possible, although he stopped short of backing full membership. 

Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia needed clarification of Brussels' position on Armenian EU membership, adding that Yerevan could not join the bloc while remaining a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, a trading group made up of several post-Soviet countries. 

Although Armenia’s relations with the EU are warm, accession will not be easy. 

The landlocked, mountainous country of 2.7 million people shares no border with the EU and has been in conflict with Azerbaijan, a major gas supplier to EU countries, since the late 1980s. 

Azerbaijan in 2023 mounted a lightning offensive to retake control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region that had been run for more than three decades by its ethnic Armenian majority with Yerevan’s backing, prompting its population to flee. 

This week, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Armenia presented a “fascist” threat that had to be destroyed, in what Yerevan said might be a prelude to fresh conflict.