On September 28 the President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran Torosyan met the Rapporeturs of the PACE Monitoring Committee Mikko Elo, Georges Colombier and Secretary Despina Chatzivassiliou. The Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Boyana Urumova also attended the meeting.

Mr. Tigran Torosyan informed the members of Committee about the work carried out after the referendum of constitutional amendments. It was noted, that in order to harmonize the Constitution and the legislation, the Parliament intends to make amendments and addenda to 50 laws. 12 laws have already been adopted. From the viewpoint of democratic development the President of the National Assembly stressed the importance of the draft laws on Human Rights Defender, Constitutional Court, Prosecutor’s Office, Self-Governance, Police, Alternative Service and detailed the opportunities that are created by the amendments. In the terms of forthcoming activities the parties stressed the importance of adopting the laws, which, as a result of constitutional amendments, will complete the legislative field for democracy development and human rights protection. These are the laws on the City of Yerevan and on Control Chamber, the new Judicial Code and the law on Legal Regime of Martial Law. The above-mentioned draft laws will be ready in the Government till the end of the year. The Parliament President touched upon also the discussions of the draft law on the amendments to the law on Television and Radio, which the Justice Minister presented to the MPs at the extraordinary sitting. Mr. Tigran Torosyan noted, that the draft law has serious shortcomings, which can be improved in the first and second readings after wide public discussions. In the meantime, the draft law will also be translated and submitted to the Council of Europe for an expert assessment.

The President of the National Assembly also touched upon the discussions of the Electoral Code. It was suggested that the draft law should be reedited with the 35-40 items from 60 items of the expert assessment of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) received in June. During the summer discussions of the political forces an agreement has not been reached only on 8 items. The NA President expressed a hope that during the discussions with the members of the Venice Commission and the parliamentarians an agreement will be reached also concerning these items. After summarizing the draft law and receiving the expert assessment the Electoral Code will be adopted before the end of the year and will provide legislative framework for holding the 2007 parliamentary elections and 2008 presidential elections in compliance with democratic standards.

After clarifying the additional details of the reforms of the judicial-legal system and of the draft law on the City of Yerevan, PACE Monitoring Committee Rapporteurs Georges Colombier and Mikko Elo expressed satisfaction regarding the works done and stressed the importance of the role of Parliament in creating the legal framework for developing democracy.
During the meeting other issues were also discussed.