Important Decisions Need to Be Made Soon: Pashinyan

The Prime Minister addressed his recent visit to Brussels before the regular meeting of the government, according to the government staff.

Below is the Prime Minister's speech:

“Hello, esteemed colleagues:

We are starting the work of the regular meeting of the government.

Before we move on to the agenda of the meeting, I would like to say a few words about my visit to Brussels. As you are aware, our delegation returned from Brussels the day before yesterday after negotiations with the leadership of the European Union. We can note that we have entered the phase of implementing the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with the European Union. In this regard, it was recorded in Brussels that the EU is fully prepared to support us in our reform agenda and the implementation of development programs in Armenia in general. It is important to note that there is no geopolitical agenda on the part of either Armenia or the European Union in this collaboration, which is crucial in this context.

There is a nuance that we need to make important decisions soon. This is unrelated to what I previously stated. I addressed this issue yesterday in the National Assembly. The matter is the following: today we are discussing several mega-projects with the European Union, the first group of which pertains to road and transport infrastructure. Our goal is to bring the highways of the Republic of Armenia to European standards. We also need to make important decisions regarding the North-South project.

Next is the implementation of large-scale reservoir construction projects and the introduction of a new water management system. In this context, it is extremely important to establish water purification plants or systems around Lake Sevan and along the Hrazdan River at least up to the Yerevan Lake.

The next issue is the construction of schools, particularly concerning seismic protection. We are already implementing this project, but we need to seriously expand its scope so that, first, these schools meet all seismic requirements and also comply with educational, content-related, modern requirements and standards—not only in terms of the building but also in terms of content.

We also have the challenge of implementing serious projects in the field of justice. When speaking with our EU partners, I mentioned that the prison conditions in which arrested and convicted individuals are held in the Republic of Armenia cannot be considered acceptable by the standards of the New Armenia. We also have problems in the judicial system; I found it surprising that we have cases where court sessions are conducted in corridor conditions, which undermines the essence of justice.

In implementing all these projects, we received the readiness of our EU partners to provide support. However, there is a problem that, naturally, while the EU is ready to support, it is not prepared to finance these projects 100%, expecting that the Republic of Armenia should also have significant participation in these projects. In this regard, our primary challenge is to increase state revenues—through regulatory measures and economic development. In this context, attracting external resources is also emphasized, and in the government program, we have stated that we consider the attraction of external resources as a primary target for infrastructure.

Here, we need to make a political decision on how we relate to this issue since we also have certain legislative limitations concerning the ratio of GDP to state debt.

To be frank, I have voted against all credit agreements throughout my entire parliamentary activity without exception, and this has had very specific political justifications. I have stated that if I consider the government to be corrupt, I cannot trust that government with any means, especially funding, and unfortunately, our studies during this period substantiate the validity of this political stance in regard to at least several major projects.

Today, we need to respond to two questions: whether we can create systemic guarantees that, in general, state funds and especially credit funds are spent purposefully, and if we can, what the conditions and boundaries are, the ratio within which we can keep the level of state debt manageable, without additional risks. This means that it should genuinely bring benefits to Armenia and never cause any harm. We already have a preliminary agreement that within one month, we will have a discussion on this topic with the Central Bank. Based on the results of that discussion, we will come to a conclusion, and regarding that conclusion, we will, of course, hold discussions, including public discussions, and we will also discuss this matter in the National Assembly, and we need to reach a common conclusion on this issue. By ‘common’ I mean the government, the National Assembly, and, of course, the public. I drew your attention to this issue as an important subject for our reflections and joint discussions in the upcoming month and perhaps even afterwards.”