When citing an excerpt from the opinion of the Venice Commission, it is very important to make a specific reference because, by doing that, we can express the idea that, in general, the Venice Commission believes its opinion also had to be taken into consideration (the Venice Commission envisaged a transitional stage and expressed regret that the Armenian parliament isn't including the part about the transitional stage in the bill). This is what head of the My Step faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Lilit Makunts told reporters today.

“The parliament didn’t include that part because first, as you know, the opinion of the Venice Commission is advisory, and this is stated in the opinion as well, and second, the advisory opinion also states that the Armenian authorities need to assess the situation before making decisions regarding the duration of the transitional stage. When the Constitutional Court had a new president after 2018, the transitional stage had begun after that, and a year-and-a-half have passed since then. To not escalate the tension, the My Step parliamentary faction approved the view that there is no need for a transitional stage at this moment,” Makunts said.

Asked why the Armenian authorities didn’t wait for the Venice Commission’s opinion before placing the bill into circulation, Makunts said the Ministry of Justice and other partners have been actively holding talks with the Venice Commission and there was no problem in terms of the concept.