DRAFT DECISION OF NA INTERIM COMMISSION CONCERNING DRAFTS OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS TO BE COMPLETED ON APRIL 8

YEREVAN, APRIL 7, NOYAN TAPAN. During the April 6 sitting RA NA interim
commission on issues of European integration finished discussing
the drafts of amendments and additions to the Constitution. During
the April 8 sitting the commission will approve its draft decision
concerning submitting the 3 bills officially put into circulation
for discussion at the NA plenary sittings. The preliminary variant
of draft decision submitted to the commission by Tigran Torosian,
NA Vice-Speaker, Chairman of the interim commission, suggests fixing
the reasons and goals of necessity in constitutional reforms and
offering NA after discussing the 3 bills as alternative ones to take
as a basis through voting the bill, which most of all corresponds to
the proclaimed goals of the constitutional reforms. The draft decision
also suggests that the authors of the bills should revise them taking
into consideration the intermediate conclusion of CE Venice Commission
and proposals made during the discussions of the interim commission
that started on February 11. The draft decision also envisages to
suggest the Venice Commission joint discussion of the revised bill
taken as a basis before the second reading in order to provide the
complete correspondence of the latter to European standards. T.Torosian
considered it expedient to fix one more “suggestion, rather a wish,
beholding to nothing “: to suggest that the authors should use all
resources to submit a united draft for the NA discussion in the
first reading. Grigor Ghonjeyan, the main reporter, objected to
the last points. In his affirmation, at present no possibility to
combine the 3 bills is foreseen, that’s why the NA is to estimate the
correspondence of the drafts to the goals of constitutional reforms. He
also doesn’t agree to the point suggesting that not the bills being
in official circulation and discussed in the interim commission but
their revised variants should be discussed in the first reading in
NA having an apprehension that the Venice Commission will object to
it in the future. The NA interim commission agreed to T.Torosian’s
proposal about officially notifying the Venice Commission on April
7 about the intention to discuss the revised variants.