Armenia and Azerbaijan in the ENP-Missed opportunities?

Abstract

This article is devoted to the relations of the European Union with Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership. Due to strategic location between Europe, the Middle East, as well as Central Asia the above mentioned instruments are very important for the European Union and its Member States, as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's rich resources of crude oil and natural gas combined with the dominant role of the Russian Federation in the region make these two countries geopolitically important. In the context of the diversification of fuels in the EU energy sector this situation poses challenges for Brussels. Russia is the main supplier for many EU countries (the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline shows that important EU members want to strengthen the observed realities, as does the Russian Federation) and the European diversification efforts are a threat to a stabilization of the energy dialogue with Moscow. The growing importance of the discussed countries of the South Caucasus has not caused significant interest among scholars in this issue. This is probably due to little interest in Armenia and Azerbaijan so far of major actors in the international political scene-with Russia as an exception. This text is an attempt to at least partially fill this gap.