The European Union has pledged to provide 2.6 billion euros of aid to Armenia to support infrastructure, the environment, transport, and reforms. Expressing his opinion on these issues, Executive Director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication Vusal Gasimli said that aid allocated to Armenia from the European Union has doubled in 2019-2020 and reached 65 million euros a year. Besides, the European Union has invested 1 billion euros in soft loans and grants in the Armenian economy since 2014. Now, the EU provides another aid equal to 2.6 billion euros. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Armenia is one of the few countries in Europe and the world with the highest military spending compared to its economy and the state budget. Those who provide gratuitous assistance to Armenia should take into account this feature of one of the most militaristic countries in the world, and not create new threats to peace and security in the region. The assistance that Armenia receives from abroad should be directed to the development of the economy; otherwise, as European Commissioner Oliver Varhely told, it would not be on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. In the last Patriotic War, Azerbaijan neutralized Armenia’s weapons and ammunition worth 4 billion US dollars. Also, hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Armenians on defense fortifications were ruined, at least 300 million US dollars of mine spending were wasted, and the economy shrank by 7.6 percent last year. Expressing in Nurkse’s words, Armenia is in a “vicious circle of poverty”. Those who want Armenia to revive impose such conditions that Armenia is stuck in one place. By entrusting its economic development and security to various power centers, Armenia is putting its statehood at a risk.

V.Gasimli compared the aids provided to Armenia to “carrying water in a leaky bucket.” He said, “This idea was once put forward by Arthur Melvin Okun, who compared the redistribution of income between states to carrying water in a "leaky bucket”.

V.Gasimli noted that only last year the European Union provided Armenia with 100 million euros to fight the pandemic. “Despite that, Armenia is the 33rd worst country in the world among 220 countries and territories in terms of "the number of deaths from COVID-19 per million population" and is the "leader" in the region.” 1,538 out of every 1 million people in this country died of COVID-19. By the way, in Azerbaijan, this figure is more than three times better than in Armenia. The question is why Armenia, which is one of the largest recipients of aid, does not show normal results. We hope that the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) Department of the European Union will ask about the effectiveness of aid to Armenia and will indicate this in its annual report. At the same time, the European Commission's audit bodies will also release their reports in this regard. The most important thing is that if Armenia had developed with assistance, it would have already been developed. For development, Armenia needs a peace agreement, as well as to build relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey," said V.Gasimli.