MEETING WITH THE PACE PRESIDENT LLUIS MARIA DE PUIG

National Assembly of RA
April 4 2008
Armenia

On April 3 in St. Petersburg the President of the National Assembly
of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Tigran Torosyan met with the President
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Mr.

Lluis Maria de Puig. During the meeting at the center of the attention
were the ongoing processes of democracy in Armenia, the presidential
elections, post-electoral events and the upcoming discussions in PACE
connected with it.

At the beginning of the meeting Mr. Torosyan congratulated Mr. Lluis
Maria de Puig on the occasion of his election as a PACE President,
highly assessing his commitment to CE principles and values, his
prestige and the many years work he had carried out for years for the
organization. Mr. Torosyan highly assessed the PACE balanced response
related to the events, which took place in Armenia, highlighting the
role and mission of the Council of Europe in the aspect of the solution
of the existing problems. On April 17 it’s important to present the
exact picture of the situation and support of deepening the democratic
processes in Armenia during the discussion through timely procedure
on the activity of the democratic institutes in Armenia. He highly
assessed the election observation and post-electoral fact-finding
mission of the delegation headed by Mr. John Prescott. The NA President
gave a balanced and unbiased assessment to Mr. John Prescott’s report
and noted that the elections and post-electoral development are
distinctly differentiated, which is an essential fact in correctly
seeing the situation. In establishing stability and democracy in the
country important recommendations were presented, the disclosure
of which will be useful in the resolution to be adopted later. In
connection with the latest amendments to the law on Conducting
Meetings, Assemblies, Rallies and Demonstrations Mr. Torosyan said that
the amendments had been adopted through extraordinary procedure and
had been immediately sent to the experts of the Venice Commission. The
experts’ opinion was received, and an agreement was reached with
the Venice Commission to have a discussion with the experts on April
15-16 on the included recommendations.

Touching upon the post-electoral events in Armenia, the PACE President
Mr. Lluis Maria de Puig noted that the Parliamentary Assembly is
concerned about it, and he himself is interested in deepening
the principles and values of democracy in Armenia. The Council
of Europe is convinced that Armenia adheres to the CE values and
principles. He expressed his support of Mr. John Prescott’s report,
noting that Armenia is a member of the CE family, and PACE will do
its utmost to ensure continuous stability and democratic processes in
Armenia. Talking about the state of emergency he noted that though the
reasons for declaring state of emergency were understandable, it caused
considerable limitations from the standpoint of democracy, and it was
he welcomed that the state of emergency was not prolonged. Mr. de
Puig also touched upon the stability and development of the South
Caucasus and said that he was planning to visit South Caucasus.