In his address at the 8th meeting of the EU-Armenia Civil Society Platform, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that he personally does not have a sense of justice and fairness at the institutional level in Armenia.

“This issue is one of the most important that we must resolve in the near future when adopting a new Constitution, because justice and fairness in Armenia are largely governed by institutions that have become ‘islands,’ are isolated, have no organic connection with the people,” Pashinyan stated.

He is convinced that today the justice and fairness system in Armenia is largely managed by institutions that are isolated and have no organic connection with the people, do not possess a sufficient level of accountability and responsibility before them. “While pursuing the issue, I have made the following conclusion for myself that justice and fairness are compliance with the Constitution and laws. But what to do in the case when the Constitution itself has no organic connection with the highest source of power?” Pashinyan asked.

In his words, any action in this situation will not be perceived as fair by society. "The Constitution should be an expression of the free will of the people, whereas we [i.e. Armenia] must admit that we do not have such a Constitution and have never had one. And when the source of that will, from which de jure justice and fairness emanate, has a rupture with the people, the operation of that mechanism can never be perceived by the people as justice and fairness," he stated. According to the Armenian premier, this is a fundamental problem that must be solved.

Pashinyan noted that in this context, cooperation with European institutions, as well as the European Court of Human Rights, is extremely important for the Armenian authorities. "Our task is not to cover up our mistakes, to try to show that everything is good and perfect. On the contrary, the key goal of our cooperation with a number of European and international institutions is to have certain mechanisms to correct possible mistakes. Because if we are guided by the assumption that we must reach a state where we do not make mistakes, that is not right," he stated.

Nikol Pashinyan continued that the task is not to completely eliminate errors, but to strive to minimize them and create effective correction mechanisms.

“The following expression that many government institutions still accept proposals with ‘bayonets’ just rang in my ears. I understand that emphasis, but I do not agree that the government is a will-less, amorphous body that must obediently carry out whatever civil society says. So let's switch roles. You govern, and we will come, present proposals. But I am not even saying that the government should reject everything,” he stated.

Pashinyan promised that the Armenian government will continue to critically accept proposals, but it is through dialogue with civil society that those “bayonets” should be lowered, because that is the essence of the process.

"The state is a complex system, the state must also have autoimmune systems. Figuratively speaking, today, viruses, which disable systems, come by e-mail with files with the best content,. For this, everything must be checked, rechecked, looked at, reviewed, because it is also very important to ensure the identity of the state, the sovereignty of the state, and security, while at the same time deepening the strategies that we [i.e. Armenia] have adopted, including in the logic of cooperation with the EU," Pashinyan said.

He noted that Armenia intends to continue and deepen its cooperation strategy with the European Union (EU). “The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement is a working agenda for us. But we must also recognize that this working agenda has been adopted and expanded with the unprecedented development of relations between Armenia and the EU in recent years,” Nikol Pashinyan stated.

Recalling that a law has been adopted in Armenia on the launch of the process of the country’s joining the EU, Pashinyan assured that this document is not a tool of pressure or blackmail. “Our strategy is that in this process we are not going to use blackmail tools, including against the EU, that, ‘We have adopted this law, so now accept us into the EU next month.’ No, not at all. We need zero nerves around this process, and this is an opportunity for us to truly comply as a country, to continue the reform process in a way that we truly comply with EU standards,” he stated.

Pashinyan did not rule out that at this point the EU may decide to abandon its enlargement policy, and Armenia will not be able to impose its will on anyone. “We cannot force anyone’s political will. If the EU decides to accept us as a full member of the EU, then great. If it decides not to accept us, we will still win, because we will be a country that meets the best modern standards. We [i.e. Armenia] understand that we are still far from that level, but we have the political will, the strategy, the vision, how to move forward,” he assured.

“The activities of the EU-Armenia Civil Society Platform are very important in this sense. As I have already mentioned, we highly appreciate the role of civil society, and will not only continue cooperation, but also deepen it,” Nikol Pashinyan concluded.