There are no intentions to postpone the discussion of the draft law on the start of the process of Armenia's membership in the European Union (EU). Arman Yeghoyan, an MP of the ruling majority Civil Contract Faction and Chair of the Standing Committee on European Integration of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, told this to reporters on Monday.

“I could have not planned the meeting at all, but I was the one who scheduled it. If there were intentions, I might not have planned it today. On the contrary, there was an intention to schedule it today,” Yeghoyan added.

The ruling force lawmaker explained that if there is the respective political will, the decision could be made even during a special meeting.

“If we were guided by geopolitical processes, the issue would not be a matter of a few days, but of months or years,” Yeghoyan said.

He noted that no issues arose regarding the wording of the text of the aforementioned bill, including on the start of the process of Armenia's membership in the EU, and the debates concern three points and are related to technical reasons.

The MP explained that the Armenian government proposed to number the articles, set timeframes for the bill to come into force, and remove the preamble from the text.

“In order for the draft to be included in the agenda of this particular four-day session, we had to complete the discussions by 12:00[pm Monday] and send the decision to the session of the National Assembly Council. Since we were unable to meet these deadlines, we preferred to continue the discussion calmly,” concluded Arman Yeghoyan.

As reported earlier, the aforesaid NA committee, at its special meeting on Monday, decided put off the second—and final—reading of the draft law on Armenia’s accession to the EU until the beginning of the next four-day parliamentary session, which will start on March 25.