Yerevan/Mediamax/. The European Union has "no illusions” about the constitutional change’s immediate consequences, but the EU still considers the parliamentary system a step forward for Armenian democracy.
This was stated in an interview to Politico by a representative of the EU Delegation to Armenia, speaking on condition of anonymity. Politico published an article titled “Armenia’s disputed move toward true democracy”.
EU representative noted that “in the long run, the new constitutional arrangements may facilitate deconcentration of power.”
The official said that Brussels is confident that its new agreement with Armenia, known as the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), can become a driver for domestic reform.
The article reads the opinion of an Armenian analyst with Chatham House Anahit Shirinyan, who agreed that transitioning to parliamentary rule was not necessarily a bad move, but there are suspicions that this will enable the ruling party to consolidate its power.
“That party has been turning Armenia into more of a one-party system over the last decade - this is the danger,” the analyst said.
Opposition ELQ alliance leader Nikol Pashinyan was more critical.
“Many people are trying to present the current process as a democratic process. Still it isn’t democratic. It’s the process of building a new dictatorship,” he told Politico.
Pashinyan criticized the European Union for the latter’s “overly optimistic” stance. He believes the government’s CEPA-related reforms will be “largely cosmetic”.
“Someone from the EU comes to Armenia, meets with the government and asks if we can do any reforms, and our government says: “Yes of course! Want us to change our judiciary?” The EU says “yes”. And then we will build new court buildings with good chairs and nice windows … but no changes in the content [of legislation]. And that is the cooperation between the EU and Armenia,” Nikol Pashinyan said.
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