YEREVAN. – By defending the new funded pension law adopted in Armenia, US Ambassador John Heffern violated the system of values of his country.

Opposition Democratic Motherland Party Chairman Petros Makeyan stated the aforesaid at a press conference on Thursday.

Makeyan reflected on the statement which Heffern had made, at the Third Annual International Pension Conference that was held on February 21 in capital city Yerevan, where he had noted that the pension reform is very important for Armenia.

“[The ambassador] praised this [pension] system [thereby] violating their own country’s system of values that the US is a democratic country, and it considers its people’s view when making important decisions. But Heffern, knowing that the Armenian people are against the [new] pension law, defends it,” he said, in particular.

In Makeyan’s words, the American diplomat had no right to make such a statement.

“The ambassador should go and solve his country’s problems; he should not deal with us. Regardless of what the US ambassador thinks, the ‘mandatory’ pension component [in the new law] shall not be passed [in Armenia],” Petros Makeyan argued.

Ambassador John Heffern’s statements at the aforesaid conference had caused large protests among the opponents of the new pension reform. The “I am against” civic initiative members had even sent open letters to the American diplomat.

The new funded pension plan, which formally came into force in Armenia on January 1, 2014, is mandatory for those born in and after 1974 and voluntary for those born before 1974. In line with this plan, 5 to 10 percent of the monthly salaries in Armenia will be deducted and mandatorily be allocated to cumulative pension funds; the latter will be reimbursed as pensions once a person turns 63 years old.

On January 24, however, the Constitutional Court decided to suspend the execution of some components in the Law on Funded Pensions pending the hearing—on March 28—of the petition submitted by the four non-ruling-coalition parliamentary forces—the Armenian National Congress, Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and Heritage—, and into the constitutionality of the several articles of the law.

Notwithstanding this, some employers already are deducting the mandatory pension payment from the salaries of their employees.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am