Rustam Badasyan discusses judicial and legal reforms agenda of Armenia with high-ranking European officials in Brussels

On 5 and 6 December, within the scope of the visit to Brussels, Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan had a meeting with Director-General for Justice and Consumers of the European Commission Tiina Astola.

The Minister expressed satisfaction with the meeting, attached importance to the opportunity to discuss the vision for reforms in the justice sector once again and reaffirmed the commitment to deepening co-operation with the European Union and implementing reforms as soon as possible.

During the meeting, Rustam Badasyan provided details of the 4 sector-specific strategies that were recently developed and concerned judicial and legal reforms, the fight against corruption and the reforms in the penitentiary and probation sectors, as well as the draft of the National Strategy for Human Rights Protection.

The directions for the actions being implemented within the scope of the EU-Armenia Strategic Policy Dialogue concerning independence in the judicial system, strengthening of accountability, the creation of an Anti-Corruption Court and other issues, were also discussed during the meeting.

Within the scope of the visit, the Minister also met with Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission Katarína Mathernová; Head of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Eastern Partnership Unit of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement of the European Commission Vassilis Maragos and Director of Neighbourhood East of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission Lawrence Meredith. During the meeting with Lawrence Meredith, the directions and time limits for support of the European Union in the justice sector were discussed, and the vision of the Government for police reforms was touched upon to a certain extent. Lawrence Meredith stressed the willingness of the European Union to support police reforms within the scope of co-operation with other partners.