The chairman of interim commission of integration
in European institutions Tigran Torosian speaks about reasons of delaying the
discussions of constitutional amendments.The sittings of that commission
haven’t been held for a long time. Producing the reasons of delaying the discussions
Tigran Torossian said: "From the beginning the reason was single; parties
which have formed coalition government needed in additional discussions on the
project of constitutional amendments. For that reason it has been asked to postpone
the progress sitting." We talked about the request of the coalition more
detailed. But before that we spoke about the sitting of the commission, which
wasn’t held on 9 of March where the changes concerned to the president must be
discussed. On this occasion it was published in the press that it had been produced
in the commission that the reporter of the project of ULP faction Grigor Ghonjeyan
was absent, he had left for Strasbourg. "Mr. Ghonjeyan has no concern of
it, – Tigran Torosian said. -He had to leave for Strasbourg with the group of
deputies to take part in discussions organized by Marshal’s center. And he refused
of leaving for taking part in the sitting of the commission. But delay of the
sitting has its explanations; the commission has 9 members. Two of them who are
from the opposition never take part in the sittings. Two of seven- Ararat Malkhasian
and Mkrtich Minasian are in Strasbourg nowadays. Gurgen Arsenian isn’t also in
the city. And only four members of the commission were in Yerevan so it was impossible
to provide for a quorum. It is very surprising that one of the newspapers has
even written that from the members of the commission only Grigor Ghonjeyan isn’t
in Yerevan. They didn’t even try to find out that Ghonjeyan wasn’t the member
of the commission at all and even his absence wouldn’t influence on the quorum."
We asked to elucidate why the coalition asked to postpone the discussions. It
is obvious that in case of these temps of the commission activities the discussions
won’t be over in provided term- in summer. So whether the coalition with this
delay has aimed to realize Kocharian’s version to combine the constitutional referendum
with the elections of the Local self-governing which will take place in autumn.
"First if there were some delay it doesn’t connect with the commission. Only
this time for the absence of some members there was no quorum. There wasn’t any
other case for the commission to hold sittings, – Mr. Torosian said. – And the
parties which formed coalition government needed in addition discussion for the
reason to make an attempt to find out the approaches about those proposals the
commission of Venice has produced on the occasion of the project of coalition.
What refers to the limit of the referendum I think in case of effective work the
projects will be discussed by the first hearing during the coming four-day sitting
in April? And it will be possible to finish everything till the pointed date and
to produce for referendum the adopted project."But there is also an easier
way. The commission of Venice in its conclusion gave the preference to the project
designed in 2001. And if the coalition agrees with the conclusion of the commission
of Venice it may refuse of the own project and adopt the project of 2003. We reminded
on this occasion that the project of the coalition has even criticized the member
of the Constitutional Court Felix Tokhian. Tigran Torosian thinks "that stressing
the project of 2001 the commission of Venice simply tried to help those who were
working on the projects and didn’t say that the only version was that and only
in that case they would give a positive conclusion."In the end we tried
to find out will the interim commission of integration in European institutions
hold a sitting on 14 of March or the discussions will be postponed? Tigran Torosian
gave hope that at least 5 members of the commission would be present and the sitting
would be held.Anna Israelian
