Consolidating workshop on Regulatory Reform Roadmap for Armenia was held

On 27-28 May, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the OSCE Office in Yerevan jointly organised a workshop in Tsaghkadzor, the main focus of which was the finalisation of a Regulatory Reform Roadmap for Armenia.

First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Arsen Mkrtchyan, Chief of the Legislative Support Unit of the OSCE/ODIHR Alice Thomas, ODIHR expert Alan Page, Chairperson of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Hovhannes Sahakyan, OSCE experts, representatives of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the World Bank, employees of the National Assembly, the Government of the Republic of Armenia, the Ministries of Finance and Economy, civil society and other state structures attended the workshop.

Topics discussed during the workshop included policy-making and legislative planning, public consultations and regulatory impact assessment, as well as monitoring and evaluation of the legislation.

The purpose of the two-day workshop discussions is to provide an opportunity for participants from the executive branch, the legislature, civil society and international organisations to exchange views on how to improve the overall process of lawmaking, as well as several processes in the country.

On this occasion, Arsen Mkrtchyan said that Armenia has already begun initiating reforms as indicated in the draft Roadmap, and this workshop will help finalise the document, which will be very useful in helping to plan and implement additional reform processes to make the legislative process less burdensome and more planned, transparent, and participatory.

In this context, the recommendations in the report on “Comprehensive Assessment of the Legislative Procedure in Armenia submitted during the previous thematic lawmaking workshops conducted in Armenia in 2015-2015” were also discussed. ”The recommendations in the draft Regulatory Reform Roadmap focus on identifying workable solutions and were developed by key Armenian stakeholders during a series of discussions” said Alice Thomas, Chief of the Legislative Support Unit of the OSCE/ODIHR. According to her, "the draft Roadmap thus constitutes a home-grown plan for action to address weaknesses identified in the Armenian lawmaking system during discussions at our 2015 workshops".

Chairperson of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Hovhannes Sahakyan emphasised that numerous discussions on making a policy of the corresponding sector and more effective legislative planning are often held in Armenia, which is aimed at improving the current state of the legal system in Armenia.

During the workshop, specialist of the relevant field delivered speeches, talking about the current state of public consultations, major issues in Armenia.