The Constructive Dialogue Network of Armenian CSOs applies to participate in the CSO Platform of the RA-EU CEPA

Today, on February 26, the Parliament is holding hearings on “Comprehensive and Extended Partnership Agreement between the EU and Armenia”.

Ms Syuzanna Soghomonyan, the Anti-Corruption Expert/Lawyer of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, also delivered a speech, which presented the position of the Association.

“As it is already well-known, Civil Society Platform will be created by virtue of Article 366 of the Comprehensive and Extended Partnership Agreement and these hearings are part of the process of creating the platform. In this process, I attach particular importance to the firm adherence to the principles that will shape the civil society platform, namely transparency, inclusiveness and the rotation principles.

Of course, these principles are not an end in themselves and they presuppose the consolidation of forces in the formation process of the platform and the participation of all actors of the civil society organizations without competition and in harmony.

Here I present the Constructive Dialogue Network of Armenian CSOs as well, which was created in February 2019, in the framework of the “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project, which one of the largest actions funded by the European Union. The network currently unites around 250 CSOs and is seeking to actively participate in the platform as well. At the same time, 250 CSOs are multi-profile and represent a variety of areas such as justice, human rights, energy, agriculture, public finance management, and so on. Among other things, I would like to highlight the public oversight of the budgeting process in Armenia carried out by the Network, which will henceforth ensure transparency and public participation in the budgeting process. In particular, as a result of long-term work with the Government, at the beginning of the year, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia made a decision according to which, prior to submitting budget applications to the Ministry of Finance, applicants should submit their applications, including accounting justifications for the discussion with CSOs by organizing public discussions  in accordance with the schedule approved by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia on 2021 Budgetary Process.

I would also like to emphasize that alongside with the proper organization of work for the formation of the platform, the capacity and expertise of CSOs constituting the platform is also important, as well as the level of influence in the development and improvement of various public policies in Armenia. And from this point of view, there is a lot of work to be done in the process of developing process of different procedures and standards,” Susanna Soghomonyan said in her speech.