At the proposal of the government, the Armenian parliament on Wednesday convened a special sitting with two legislative packages on the agenda.
The government proposes to urgently adopt a draft law on amendments and supplements to the constitutional law "On Judicial Code of the Republic of Armenia", to which a bill on making amendments and supplements to the law "On the Academy of Justice" is also attached.
The second legislative package proposes amendments to the law “On Social Assistance”, which includes draft laws on amendments to the law “On public Administration Bodies” and the law “On State Pensions”.
Presenting the bills, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan said that the first draft package envisages an increase in the number of judges, while the second package calls for urgent changes in the norms regulating the social sphere.
MP Taron Simonyan from the opposition Bright Armenia faction took the parliament floor to denounce the hasty debates on the bills.
According to him, if bills on the de-occupation of the Azerbaijani-held Artsakh territories, amendments to the law on weapons or sweeping changes in the army building had been introduced in the parliament, he would have understood emergency debates on them, but now he does not understand the relevance of the government-drafted bills.
The minister said in turn that the priorities are different, adding there is a package of bills on the social sphere, which is set to come into force on April 1, and before that, certain model changes must be made to the submitted bills.
However, the opposition MP noted that he would have understood if this rationale had been presented a year or two ago, stating there are other priority issues now.
Another Bright Armenia MP Ani Samsoyan noted that they have repeatedly addressed the issue of reforms in the judiciary, but the government continues to “patch up” the judicial reforms.
