On November 13 a special delegation of the Council of Europe cabinet of ministers, headed by Roland Wegener, German Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe first met with the opposition wing of the National Assembly and then with the representatives of the coalition factions. The parties discussed the process of Armenia’s honouring its commitments before the Council of Europe and the possibility of cooperative activity between the authorities and the opposition in the Parliament.

The “Ardarutiun” (Justice) bloc and “National Unity” factions presenting the two opposition wings of the Parliament share common position on the issues under discussion. Dialogue is possible if the authorities find legal solutions to the existing problems, however, no such attempts have been made: persons responsible for rigging presidential and parliamentary elections weren’t punished, none was brought to justice for committing illegal actions, no progress has been registered in terms of freedom of speech, the factions representatives claimed. As far as their position on the Electoral Code and constitutional reform is concerned, even if the later prove immaculate elections still will be rigged until the authoritative show the political will to find legal solutions to the existing problems. The factions’ representatives also accepted the necessity to improve these two key laws and stated they had clearly expressed their position as such.

RPA, “Orinats Yerkir” (Rule of Law) and ARF factions’ representatives claimed they abide by the principles of the coalition memorandum, which haven’t been violated so far and one of which is democracy. The opposition announced boycott of the National Assembly meetings without presenting sound grounds tying their position to the violations registered during the recent elections. The coalition forces have made numerous proposals to discuss the issues put forward by the opposition, find solutions, improve the Electoral Code and the Constitution, participate in the law-making process and find common solutions, which the opposition turned down due to various reasons. The participation of the opposition deputies in the law-making and law-improving process will give a necessary impetus and make the parliamentary activity more prolific, the factions’ representatives stated.

Weighting the amendments to the Electoral Code the coalition representatives told that the draft passed the first reading and proposals on the draft are currently being discussed. The draft will be improved taking into account the opinions expressed, recommendations of the Venice Commission before it is submitted for discussion on second reading. The coalition representatives assured the CE representatives of the irreversibility of Armenia’s policy toward integration in the European structures and abiding by the democratic values and pledged their commitment to cooperation with any political force, among such the opposition forces, to overcome the existing difficulties, speed up the process of integration in Europe and establish democracy.