YEREVAN. – The meeting initiated by Armenian PM will change nothing, whereas opposition Armenian National Congress' (ANC) position on pension reform is clear, ANC member told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan on Tuesday set up a discussion, with the six parliamentary factions, concerning the mandatory component of Armenia’s new pension law. ANC decided not to participate in the meeting.

“All parliamentary forces minus one. We did not appear at the meeting, since our demands are clear concerning the draft law and petition to the Constitutional Court. The meeting will change nothing, while our position is clear. This is the reason we did not go to meet with Abrahamyan,” Aram Manukyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

On April 2, the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia declared unconstitutional a whole series of articles in the new Law on Funded Pensions. Despite this ruling, however, the state-run financial institutions still oblige the employers to make mandatory funded pension cuts from the salaries of their employees. The respective reasoning is that the CC gave the parliament and the government until September 30 to amend the aforesaid law’s provisions that were deemed unconstitutional.