- 21.12.2023
- Posted by: Tigran
- Category: news, news

On 19 December, the advisory opinions on visa facilitation and readmission and police reforms developed under the EU-Armenia Civil Society Platform were discussed with the representatives of the state bodies and other stakeholders.
The advisory opinions were developed by Mr Stepan Grigoryan, President of the Analytical Centre for Globalisation and Regional Cooperation and Mr Daniel Ioannisyan, Coordinator of Programmes with the Union of Informed Citizens.
Ms Arpine Sargsyan, Deputy Minister of the Interior, Mr Frank Hess, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation and Ms Lousineh Hakobyan, Co-Chair of the EU-Armenia Civil Society Platform delivered opening remarks.
Ms Hakobyan noted that the Platform has been very active in the recent year having produced 14 advisory opinions. One more is in the pipeline. On the basis of these opinions the annual report of the Platform will be complied and presented at the beginning of 2024. In addition to this, she noted that there is a certain difference between what civil society and the Government understand as the content of the Government’s commitments under CEPA. While the Government understands it as the actions foreseen by its two roadmaps, civil society perceives these commitments in broader terms, including the problems that remain unresolved. Perhaps it is important to sit together and come to an agreement on the content of these commitments for the next year. Or maybe it is the right time to update these roadmaps. At least where the commitments of the democracy bloc are concerned, civil society sees such a need.
Ms Arpine Sargsyan, Deputy Minister of the Interior mentioned that the Ministry is ready for constructive dialogue and for any objective and rational criticism, which will contribute to resolving the existing problems and progress. The Deputy Minister presented the results of the police reform for the current year, including the formation of the Ministry and the recruitment processes within it. She also noted that the development of the new 2024-2026 police reform strategy is underway and that those recommendations of the advisory opinions that are in line with the directions of the strategy may be reflected in it.
Deputy Minister Sargsyan noted that they have registered considerable progress in the field by virtue of the support of both international partners and civil society, especially in the area of police, migration, citizenship reforms. ‘But we all understand that to proceed institutionally we will need an institutional mechanism to drive sectoral reform forward. It was with the support of these same partners that we established the Ministry last year and there have been serious developments this year. It is true that there are still sectoral problems which need to be resolved. Therefore, we will only be happy to discuss in this context concrete solutions to see which of these are feasible for the short-, medium- or longer-term, so that we can move forward in a more rational manner.’
Mr Hess noted that the European Union has been supporting Armenia in its reform process for several years now. A constructive dialogue between society and the state is a genuine component of the reform process, and that the EU hopes that any issue arising out of such discussion will be duly addressed, making the current reforms effective.
The event was organized in cooperation with the Union of Informed Citizens.
Note:
The EU-Armenia Civil Society Platform is one of the structures established under the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed between Armenia and EU in 2017. It enables the civil societies from both parties to monitor the progress of CEPA implementation by advising the relevant public bodies.