YEREVAN. – The European Union (EU) has expressed clear assistance to the judicial reform process in Armenia. Ambassador Piotr Świtalski, Head of the Delegation of the EU to Armenia, noted about this at a press conference on Monday, and touching upon the ongoing changes in the judiciary of the country.

He added that this EU assistance was presented at the highest level: by European Council President Donald Tusk, when he had visited Armenia.

In the ambassador’s words, the EU stands ready to provide Armenia with a very clearly assessable funding for this judicial reform process, they—as the EU—consider—in this regard—direct assistance, immediate assistance and a multi-million-euro-worth assistance program for the next three to four years, they await specific respective plans from the Armenian government, and they are ready to assist Armenia in the implementation of these plans.

The envoy stressed, however, that the EU does not impose any model for reforms on Armenia and there is no single such model within the EU that will work properly, but they stand ready to provide advice to the country, mobilize the expertise potential, and share track-records in this domain.

And reflecting on the criticism that the incumbent Armenian authorities are attempting to establish a dependent judicial system in the country, Świtalski said these judicial reforms should be carried out pursuant to the constitution of Armenia, the efforts to carry out these reforms should be in accordance with international standards, the perfect division of branches of power is crucial to the EU, and he has no reason at the moment to be concerned that there is a trend in Armenia to undermine the independence of the judicial power in the country.