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The Standing Committees are the important pillars of parliamentarism, as the Executive carries out its functions through them. In the form of parliamentary government, the Committees are considered to be an important mechanism for balancing the interests of the ruling political majority and parliamentary minority. They are deemed to be a platform of forming political consensus, as representatives of different political forces, being engaged in the same Committee, are obliged to come to a common denominator for solving the concrete problems, including through compromises: The Chair of the RA NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Gevorg Papoyan said, welcoming the participants chosen for the Young Professionals’ Parliamentary Program 2024 in the National Assembly on February 21, presenting the participants of the program the theme The oversight tools of the Standing Committees of the National Assembly and their use.

The Committee Chair, among other directions, spoke about the creation, quantity of the Standing Committees in Parliament, then also about the publicity of their membership and activity: “The publicity of the sittings stems from the goals of the rise of transparency of the Committees’ activity and ensuring the connection between the representatives of the people with primary mandate and the public. In modern parliaments, the essential part of the work in parliaments is carried out through Standing Committees,” Gevorg Papoyan noted, highly appreciating the role of the Standing Committees in parliament.

On behalf of the Standing Committees, the parliamentarian mentioned two directions of the NA oversight: They are – the oversight on the procedure of the laws’ implementation and receiving information on the implementation of the Government program.

“We should also note that the NA Rules of Procedure reserves significant role to the Standing Committees in a number of other aspects of the parliamentary oversight, i.e. the preliminary debate of the reports of state bodies, the oversight towards the state budget,” Gevorg Papoyan stated and in this context spoke about the peculiarities of the state budget and its preparation: “The state budget is the financial plan of the Government, which is prepared for one calendar year. This is a document financing the Government policy during the current year, which shows what financial means, expenditures are envisaged for the planned actions and mention from what sources are generating those financial means – the receipts, including the revenues. While preparing the annual budget it is necessary to understand what policy is going to pursue the country. The next important step is the administration,” Gevorg Papoyan noted and in this context considered important the seven percent economic growth recorded by the Republic of Armenia.

The next agenda meeting was with the Head of Department of Foreign Relations Tigran Seiranian and the Leading Specialist of the same Department, the Program Graduate Karen Ghazaryan. The speakers presented the role of the parliament in the foreign policy and its main priorities, spoke about the Armenia-EU relations, the RA NA membership to the international organizations, the Friendship Groups and the support of the young specialists to the parliamentary diplomacy.

“The parliamentary diplomacy is one of the most important formats of foreign policy and is considered to be one of the most important tools of the international effective cooperation. It refers to the whole format of the international activity being initiated by the parliamentarians, raising the mutual understanding between the countries, the oversight of the Executive and the democratic legitimacy of the inter-governmental institutes, and helping each other for improving the people’s representation,” Tigran Seiranian said, evaluating the role of the parliamentary diplomacy.

The young specialists’ next speaker was the deputy of the NA Civil Contract Faction Arusyak Julhakyan. First, the MP presented in detail the legislative processes, spoke about the Committee and plenary sittings and their features, the oversight being carried out towards the Executive the representation role and the link with the citizens, as well as the parliamentary diplomacy.

“I welcome the work being done with the program and the young specialists, as sometimes people don’t imagine what path passes the legislative draft already being publicly debated. You, the program participants, during these months will be able to work with the deputies and the Staff, to understand what path pass the legislative initiatives or the decisions made in the National Assembly,” Arusyak Julhakyan said.

The deputy presented what work she does in the National Assembly, particularly spoke about the Standing Committee, her membership to the Assemblies and Friendship Groups, introduced the histories of the creation, peculiarities of the Council of Europe (CoE), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and deemed important the fundamental values being the basis in those structures - the protection of human rights, the peace, the rule of law and the democracy. The participants of the meeting addressed questions, which particularly related to the RA-RF, the RA-Azerbaijan-Turkey relations, the inter-parliamentary diplomacy, the imposing of possible sanctions towards Azerbaijan by the PACE.

The Chief Specialist of the NA Financial and Economic Expertise Division of the Expertise and Analytical Department Gevorg Kirakosyan emphasized the adoption of the budget and the oversight towards implementation in the parliamentary government system. The speaker introduced the budgetary processes, noted that the right of submitting a draft law on State Budget is only reserved to the Government, then informed what are the assisting bodies to the National Assembly in the budgetary oversight.

The chosen young people asked questions, which referred to the RA state budget, the policy of preparation and the tendencies of its increase year by year.