Council of Europe in the Republic of Armenia: We support the Armenian  authorities in adopting a new criminal code and conducting judicial  reforms

ArmInfo. "We support the Armenian authorities in adopting a new criminal code and carrying out reforms of the judicial code of the Republic of Armenia," Natalia Vutova,  representative of the Council of Europe in Armenia, said during a  discussion of the draft criminal procedure in Armenia on December 6.

It should be noted that discussions were organized within the  framework of the program "Promoting Criminal Justice Reforms and  Harmonizing the Application of European Standards in Armenia" and  partnership programs for good governance.

Vutova recalled that the opinions of the Venice Commission, approved  in October 2019, around the ratification of the Istanbul Convention  and the package of amendments to the Judicial Code are important,  noting that through this document, the Council of Europe works with  the Armenian authorities.  The CE representative expressed the hope  that, following the discussion, the criminal justice project will be  adopted by the National Assembly next year.

Vutova said that European experts of the highest rank arrived in  Armenia, who worked on this document for a rather long time.

"I hope that through the involvement of national and international  colleagues, we will have the opportunity to bring this document in  line with international requirements before being accepted into the  country's parliament," Vutova said.

In turn, the head of the cooperation department of the EU delegation  to Armenia Gonzalo Serano de la Rosa noted that today's discussions  will touch upon judicial and legal reforms, in particular, questions  will be raised around in the criminal procedure legislation.

"On the EU side, we attach great importance to the implementation of  judicial reforms in the coming years this year, in particular in the  field of human rights, the fight against corruption," he said.

In his opinion, in recent years, serious progress has been recorded  in Armenia in these areas, from the point of view of planning and  strategy development, important documents have been adopted, the  "Armenia-EU" Action Programs have been developed and implemented.

"But today we need to raise issues related to the legislative part,  in particular the technical aspects and see how the legislation will  help us implement the important strategies that were adopted  earlier," Gonzalo Serano de la Rosa added.

Touching upon the visit of the Minister of Justice of Armenia Rustam  Badasyan to Brussels, where he participates in discussions on the  judicial legal reforms, the European official stressed that the  participation of the European Union and the Council of Europe in  these processes play an important role. <This all becomes very  important at a time when there is a master in the country who  requires these reforms.  Therefore, it is very important that  representatives of different structures, following the results of  discussions, be able to ensure a project that meets international  standards. During the discussions, we will also discuss the problems  that matter within the framework of the CEPA agreement, see how the  work entrusted to the government institutions is going on,> the head  of the cooperation department of the EU delegation in Armenia summed  up.