Azernews.Az

BAKU – The European Union is seeking to step up its role in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, but not at the expense of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group, an EU official told Radio Liberty’s Armenian service.

"The EU supports the Minsk Group and its efforts to find a political solution to the conflict. But EU members are growing increasingly convinced that Brussels should be active and play a tangible political role [in the peace process]," said Miroslav Lajcak, the envoy of the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war over Nagorno Karabakh that emerged before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory has been under Armenian occupation since the war. OSCE mediators from Russia, the United States and France have led negotiations on Karabakh settlement but little progress has been made so far.

According to Lajcak, the Karabakh problem is the only conflict in the EU’s neighborhood in whose settlement the bloc is not involved.

"We cannot just establish ties with our Eastern neighbors and pretend as if this conflict is non-existent," he said.

Lajcak said the EU is in talks with the Minsk Group to determine when and how Brussels could take steps aiming to facilitate a Karabakh settlement. "But the answer to this question depends not on our discussions with the Minsk Group, but on peace talks [ongoing between the conflict parties]."

Lajcak said that currently on the negotiating table is a political settlement that would create a ground for a new series of actions for many, including the EU, aimed to advance the conflict settlement.

He said Brussels could do much in this area. For instance, it could foster a rapprochement between Azerbaijan and Armenia and stimulate dialog between the public in the two countries.

"However, these steps depend on the dynamics of the negotiating process: if progress is made, the EU will have a lot more room for involvement [in the peace process], but if no progress is reached, the European family will have less potential to get anything done."

Lajcak said the most graphic example of the EU’s attention to the Karabakh problem is the fact that EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will appoint the bloc’s new envoy to the South Caucasus region shortly.

"This appointment is the measure that will allow to assert the EU’s position, interests and policy in the South Caucasus," he added.