Yerevan hosts meeting on Good Governance and EU Budget Support

PanARMENIAN.Net - Civil Society Organizations, including the members of the Armenian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership, took part in the meeting on Good Governance and the EU Budget Support organized by the EU Delegation to Armenia on June 20, 2013.

The meeting was opened by Traian Hristea, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia. “It is our firm intention to put the CSOs in center of our dialogue and enhance policy participation of citizens through CSOs,” he said.

Alessandro Zanotta, Project Manager from the EU Delegation to Armenia, presented General Conditions and principles of the EU Budget Support in Armenia and areas that it covers. He underlined the role of the dialogue between all stakeholders in the process of oversight of the budget and explained the necessity of CSOs involvement in policy dialogue. CSOs experience and activities in the area of Good Governance were shared during two presentations held on the behalf of the Working Group 1 of the Armenian National Platform.

Varuzhan Hoktanyan, Executive Director of Transparency International tackled the issues of anticorruption policies and bodies, elections, public procurement and public service. Larisa Minasyan, Executive Director of Open Society Institute AF Armenia, gave a presentation on ICT management and higher education and a specific case of Yerevan city budget formation.

The need of more institutionalized and systemic involvement of the Non-State Actors in policy dialogue around Budget Support eligibility criteria and at the sector level was highlighted during the discussion. The CSOs expressed a view that adoption of laws has to be followed by their implementation. Therefore a monitoring is essential in order to assess how it works in reality. It was agreed that a working group on Budget Support Operations should be created.

Through bi-monthly meetings focusing on a variety of topics and engaging different CSOs, the EU Delegation wishes to strengthen accessibility and quality of information on the EU agenda in Armenia.