On June 14, the National Assembly convened the last regular sittings of the session. According to the NA decision, the NA draft statement on the Armenian-Azerbaijani – Armenian-Turkish relations submitted by the NA Armenia and With Honor Factions was not included in the agenda of the session. The Head of the NA Civil Contract Faction Hayk Konjoryan informed that the faction would not participate in voting of the draft. The draft was not debated in the Head Committee.
After approving the agendas of the session and the regular sittings, the deputies debated in the first reading the draft law on Making Amendments and Addenda to the Law on Diplomatic Service authored by the deputies of the NA Civil Contract Faction Vladimir Vardanyan and Hripsime Grigoryan.
According to the key rapporteur Vladimir Vardanyan, there is a need to fill the gaps of the Law on Diplomatic Service by modernizing it.
“During the last almost twenty years, significant changes took place both in the sphere of our public service and in other legal acts regulating the diplomatic services, which led to the need for certain corrections,” the key rapporteur noted in his speech.
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The civil service system will be introduced in the structural divisions supporting the Ministry in accordance with the Law on Civil Service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the adoption of the draft. The Secretary General, which is a diplomatic position, will have a Deputy who will be considered a civil servant and will coordinate the work of the professional structural divisions.
A change in the scale of diplomatic ranks is proposed. As a result of its adoption, the ranks of the second and first secretaries will be changed.
The third change refers to the change of the terms of granting the next diplomatic rank. The fact that the term of service in the staff or separate divisions of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs is at least two years is taken into account, and after that problems are arising for the diplomats with the rank of attaché sent to the RA Diplomatic Mission in foreign countries in contacts with the relevant bodies, based on the fact that the attachés are considered technical employees in many countries. This change will allow to send the RA diplomats to foreign countries and international organization at least with the diplomatic rank of the third secretary, increasing the efficiency of the work.
The authors expect that as a result of the changes, it will be possible to form a group of a middle-class diplomats in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will allow the structure to give an opportunity to make wider choices while appointing different positions.
The other change refers to the procedure for issuing, returning and keeping diplomatic passports. According to Vladimir Vardanyan, the changes will be in line with the Law on Passport of a Citizen of the Republic of Armenia, so that a situation will not be created where a diplomatic passport appears to a person who does not even have the right to get a civil passport or the passport expires.
It is noted in the draft that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will issue a diplomatic passport on the basis of the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Armenia for a period of maximum five years, but not longer than the terms set by Article 4.2 of the Law on Passport of a Citizen of the Republic of Armenia.
The member of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Lilit Minasyan presented the endorsement of the Committee.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Paruyr Hovhannisyan presented the positive opinion of the Government.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia