Russia & CIS General Newswire
December 28, 2007 Friday 4:49 PM MSK
PACE may resolve issue on ending monitoring in Armenia -Speaker
Torosian
Armenian National Assembly Speaker Tigran Torosian hopes that the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will stop
monitoring in the country in the near future.
The decision to stop monitoring in Armenia and to start a post-
monitoring process might be taken either in fall 2008 or at a PACE
session in January 2009, he said in an interview with Interfax.
"This does not mean that problems will be over in the country. The
end of the process shows that there has been a significant change,
because monitoring is conducted when a country assumes obligations as
a Council of Europe member," he said.
Currently, there are two types of monitoring conducted in Armenia:
one by PACE and another one by the Council of Europe’s Committee of
Ministers, he said.
"It will be particularly important how the presidential election is
held if PACE is to end the monitoring of Armenia," Torosian said.
"Its full compliance with international standards will mean that such
elections in Armenia become a tradition," he said. This is essential
for raising the country’s international rating and for completing its
monitoring, he said.
"Another crucial factor facilitating the end of monitoring is to
ensure compliance of the law, although there is a lot of work to be
done in this direction," the speaker said.
"Armenia has every right to ask PACE to end monitoring, because it is
not inferior to other countries where the monitoring is already
over," Torosian said.