The Venice Commission regrets that a proposal for constitutional amendments was introduced in the Armenian Parliament on the day of the adoption by the Venice Commission of its opinion. This is stated in the Venice Commission opinion on the constitutional amendments in Armenia, and which was issued Monday.

“The Commission regrets that a proposal for constitutional amendments was introduced in the Armenian Parliament on the day of the adoption by the Venice Commission of this Opinion, which proposal is not in line with the recommendations in this Opinion,” reads point 82 of this opinion.

To note, a meeting of the Council of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia took place this morning, from which the MPs were informed that a special session of the NA was to be convened today at 1pm, during which the main law—the Constitution—of the country shall be amended.

The respective draft amendments—tabled by the majority My Step faction in parliament—to the Constitution propose that the powers of the Constitutional Court judges of who have been in office for more than 12 years, as well as the term of office of the serving president of the Constitutional Court be terminated, and the next president of the Constitutional Court shall be elected by a new procedure. There are currently three Constitutional Court judges who have been in office for more than 12 years, whereas the current president of the Constitutional Court, Hrayr Tovmasyan, has been in office in this capacity for only two years, and therefore he will remain a member of the Constitutional Court.

The full opinion of the Venice Commission is accessible here.