On March 15 the sixth meeting of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Assembly Cooperation Committee opened at the RA National Assembly. Ambassadors of the EU member states participated in the meeting.

Greeting and wishing the participants in the meeting productive work, RA NA Speaker Artur Baghdasaryan pointed out that the newly-elected Parliament has been consistent and abided by principles as far as Armenia’s obligations before the Council of Europe are concerned which brought about ratification of a number of key laws and all required conventions. A timetable of new constitutional reform has been elaborated as a result of efficient cooperation with the Council of Europe. The National Assembly initiated the timetable in question during the spring session. The Parliament will remain consistent in honoring all the agreements reached, the NA Speaker assured. Armenia is on the stage of carrying out constitutional, electoral reforms as well as reforms involving legislative activities of local self-governance and regional administration bodies. A legislation regulating legal-judicial system will be elaborated in conjunction with the CE experts. NA Speaker Artur Baghdasaryan pointed out: “The European Union, which is going to expand its borders on May 1, is that longed-for point which our country aspires to reach and which we can attain as a result of efficient activities of this Committee.” Political inquiries of the Committee brought about South Caucasus’ involvement in the formulation of “EU’s Wider Europe-New Neighborhood Policy.”

Rouben Shugaryan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hans-Wulf Bartels, Ambassador of Germany to Armenia on behalf of the Irish presidency-in-Office of the Council of the European Union, and Torben Holtze, Ambassador, Head of the European Commission Delegation in Armenia, greeted the participants of the meeting. The speakers credited Armenia’s efforts on the way towards the integration into European structures and the process of honoring commitments before the Council of Europe.

Following the ratification of the agenda and the protocol of the fifth meeting of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Assembly Cooperation Committee held on March 24-25, 2003 in Brussels the Committee began discussion on the issues on the agenda.

Armen Rustamyan, the Committee Co-Chair and Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, addressed the process of Armenia’s honoring commitments before the CE highlighting the huge work carried out over one year and the progress registered, especially in terms of carrying out reforms related to the spheres of democratization, human rights and legal-judiciary system. The NA ratified the 6^th Protocol, which allowed thorough reformation of the Criminal Code, adopted the law “On Ombudsman,” which brought about the initiation of the Institute of Ombudsman in Armenia. The law on “Alternative Military Service” which was at the core of Armenia’s commitments has also been adopted. Armenia has no more obligations to honor in terms of ratifying conventions, Mr. Rustamyan pointed out. Ratification of the Social Charter was highlighted in terms of the process of honoring Armenia’s obligations before the CE. Decisive steps were taken on fighting corruption. The Armenian Government has adopted the Anti-Corruption Strategy and joined the international authoritative organization GRECO (Group of States against Corruption, EC) in January 2004 becoming its 37^th member. Against the backdrop of these developments Mr. Rustamyan highlighted the ratification of the Criminal and Civil Conventions.

Addressing judicial-legal reforms the sides pointed out that a new package of judicial-legal reforms will be brought before the Parliament. A number of laws conforming to the international standards will be adopted, in particular, laws “On General Prosecutor’s Office,” “On Counselors for Defense,” the Criminal Judicial Code, etc.

Mr. Rustamyan highlighted reforming self-governance system, addressed the issue of Yerevan’s status, which is being looked into. The issue is in the stage of debate before the adoption of constitutional reforms as intermediary solution, a necessity arose to adopt a law “On Yerevan”.

Significant efforts have been made towards ensuring the freedom of press: the Parliament has adopted the laws “On Freedom of Press,” “On Mass Media,” “On TV and Radio.”

Addressing the regional problems Armen Rustamyan weighted regional economic cooperation, a process that is largely hampered by Azerbaijan. Mr. Rustamyan credited Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s proposal to set up a common economic competition field. The party considered acceptable Azerbaijan President’s statement to resume the negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict from scratch.

The Committee discussed the process of implementing recommendations made during the C ommittee meeting in March 2003, the political situation in Armenia and the democratic process, the issue of freedom of press, issues related to implementation of the recommendation of the International Election Observation Mission followed by the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2003 and the Anti-Corruption Strategy.