The Commission announced the opening negotiations on a deep and comprehensive free trade area with Armenia in order to boost economic growth and investment with this Eastern European Partner. The negotiations will not only tackle market access conditions but also focus on regulatory approximation, which will help to achieve a closer economic integration of Armenia with the EU.

The European Union decided to launch free trade negotiations with Armenia. The negotiations will cover matters that have become crucial to a modern, transparent and predictable trade and investment environment. The EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht highlighted that the EU is Armenia's first trading partner and a deep and comprehensive free trade area will give Armenia a more favourable access to the European Single Market thereby helping to boost economic growth in the country. For example, in July 2011 the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) enters into force.

One of the aims of the EU is to enhance political stability and security in this country by means of closer economic integration with the EU. The free trade area is expected to diversify and strengthen Armenia's export capacity and effectively open the way to access the EU market of 500 million consumers. The future Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area aims at closely associating this country to the EU both in economic and political terms, in line with the Eastern Partnership objectives. The EU has been negotiating an Association Agreement with Armenia since July 2010 in the framework of the Eastern Partnership and the European Neighbourhood Policy.

According to the Commission, Armenia needs to continue its work towards reaching a stable, transparent and predictable economic environment. This is essential to attract foreign direct investment inflows, leading to job creation and long-term growth. The most important gains for Armenia lie therefore behind the border, in regulatory reforms, and as such will impact on its long-term development perspective.