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| 18:22:39 | 24-06-2005 | Politics | PACE SUMMER SESSION 2005 |

«GOOD DAY FOR ARMENIA AND COE»

«Today is a fine day both for Armenia and the COE. We did wonderful work
with the Armenian delegation and came to an agreement about all the issues»,
said the Venice Commission secretary Gianni Buquicchio after the end of the
session of the Venice Commission working group with the Armenian delegation.

Mr. Buquicchio mentioned that in all the three disputable issues which refer
to the power distribution, independence of court power and the Yerevan
mayor, and agreement has been reached with the Armenian delegation.

The Venice Commission Constitutional Rights department head Simona
Granata-Mengini, referring to the Yerevan problem, mentioned that the main
issue is no decide the status of Yerevan. «In this matter we came to an
agreement that in the Constitution the principle of Yerevan being a local
self-governing body must be stipulated, and the Yerevan mayor must be
elected. The order of election must be stated by law. The European standards
allow us to elect the mayor both directly and indirectly», she said.

Mrs. Granata-Mengini underlined that the most important thing is to
stipulate the principle of electing the Yerevan mayor by the Constitution.
«If it is stipulated that Yerevan is a community, that is enough, as by
another article in the Constitution it is stated that the community heads
are elected. There will be no problems if the Yerevan mayor is elected in a
different way. What is importnat is that he must be elected».