If the RA government wants to go this way, the EU is ready to support. Svitalsky

The EU considers RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statement about the judicial system as a firm commitment to reforms. Head of the European Union Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Pyotr Svitalsky announced this in a conversation with journalists.

He noted that they did not have the opportunity to discuss the issue in detail with the Armenian government, the Minister of Justice or other people, but what the Prime Minister mentioned is very clear for the EU.

“It is a very clear and very strong commitment to justice reform. The Minister of Justice spoke about vetting, presenting the Albanian model. The European Union worked closely with the Albanian government to develop the so-called Albanian model, and today that vetting model is supported by the European Union. This is an opportunity for the Armenian side to take into account,” Svitalsky noted.

According to him, if the Armenian government wants to go this way, the EU is ready to support it. But it hasn’t been discussed yet.

“The EU believes that reforms in the field of justice in Armenia are of vital importance from the point of view of the future. I can say that deep and comprehensive justice reforms are essential for your future for a number of reasons, but the first reason is that the Armenian people do not trust the courts. In the past years, the European Union financially supported the conduct of independent studies, which documented that too many Armenians do not trust the courts.

And we published the partnership report today, you can find there chapters that refer to other structures, in which it is also mentioned that Armenia has a problem. too many people don’t trust the courts. Therefore, you need reforms to restore public confidence. We believe that the reforms should be carried out respecting the Constitution, Armenia’s international commitments, including from the point of view of membership in the Council of Europe, respecting our joint commitments, in particular, regarding reforms in the field of justice,” the ambassador noted.

Pyotr Svitalsky added: “We are ready to support Armenia for deep and comprehensive reforms in the field of justice, with technical or advisory support, and fairly extensive financial support. We strongly support the commitments undertaken by the Prime Minister to implement reforms in the justice sector. This is an extremely serious commitment. We never impose anything, but the Armenian government should know that it can count on our support during the implementation of these reforms, based on these very principles. The EU encourages the RA government to develop reforms on the basis of an inclusive dialogue with all interested parties.”