Deputy Minister Grigoryan presents the course of implementation of judicial-legal reforms to EU partners

The third meeting of the EU-Armenia Partnership Council was held on 17 December in Brussels, and the Armenian delegation participating in the session was led by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ara Aivazian.

During the meeting, the parties of the Republic of Armenia and the EU exchanged ideas on the course of implementation of the reforms of the Government in the areas of democracy, rule of law and human rights protection.

From the Armenian side, the topic was presented by Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Kristinne Grigoryan.

In her speech, the Deputy Minister presented to the partners the course of implementation of judicial-legal and anti-corruption reforms, as well as reforms for human rights protection and police reforms.

Deputy Minister Grigoryan stressed that the government of the Republic of Armenia is consistently moving forward with its plan to ensure integrity, independence and efficiency of the judiciary, touched upon the process of establishing institutional anti-corruption bodies and informed about the process of approving the new Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes targeted at the introduction of a modern system of criminal justice.

Kristinne Grigoryan also presented the key directions for reforms for human rights protection and police reforms and the course of implementation.

High Representative of the EuropeanUnion for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell highly appreciated the course of the justice and anti-corruption reforms implemented by the government and, with satisfaction, mentioned the commitment of the Government to continue to implement those democratic reforms amid the existing challenges.

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement of the European Commission Olivér Várhelyi stated that the European Union is supporting the reforms in the justice sector with a EUR 30 million support package and that last week the European Union transferred EUR 9 million to the State Budget of Armenia for promising performance.

The Commissioner stated that the EU highly values the active efforts of the Government to establish strong anti-corruption institutions, including the Anti-Corruption Law-Enforcement Body and the Anti-Corruption Court.

Olivér Várhelyi also stated that the European Union supports the police reforms, particularly the efforts of the Government to establish a Ministry of Internal Affairs and, to that end, starting from 2021, EUR 10 million will be made available to Armenia by the EU.

Deputy Minister Kristinne Grigoryan touched upon the COVID-19 pandemic and the war unleashed by Azerbaijan, the painful consequences of the war and stated that Armenia currently faces new challenges and has new priorities for human rights protection and access to justice.