Armenia’s leadership wants to join the European Union and will hold a referendum for that purpose “in the near future,” parliament speaker Alen Simonian reportedly said on Wednesday.

“Our society has made a decision to be part of the European Union,” he told Latvia’s Rus.LSM news service during a visit to the Baltic state.

Simonian was the first member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s entourage to publicly float the idea of the country’s accession to the EU in February this year amid a further deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations. Pashinian discussed it with parliament deputies from his Civil Contract party in…