On October 5 in RA National Assembly the sessions of the Permanent commissions on science, education and economy and finances of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS).

Welcoming the participants of the session, National Assembly President Artur Baghdasaryan expressed a hope that the law-making activity of the commissions will be effective, as the work of the Interparlaimentary Assembly (IPA) gradually gets more activated and the international authority of the organization rises.

Mikhail Krotov, General Secretary of the IPA Council didn’t consider accidental that these two commissions hold sessions in Yerevan: the development of science, education and economy is of priority for the CIS member nations. Mr. Krotov informed that the draft laws being discussed in the commissions will be put on the agenda of the plenary session of the Assembly, which will be held on November 17, in St. Petersburg.

The IPA Permanent Commission on science and education had the first session jointly with the commission on ethics of the Assembly forum at the RA Academy of Sciences, which referred to the studies made in the sphere of biomedicine, their moral and legal side in CIS member nations. That session, in fact, was the first part of the international conference, where specialists from the European countries, USA and representatives of international organizations studying the sphere, were also invited.

In the opening speech Sergey Doroguntsov, Chairman of the IPA Permanent commission on science and education and Olga Kubar, Chairperson of the forum of the ethics commission highlighted the international experience accumulated in the sphere of biomedicine, the regulation of the legislative sphere and the preservation of the rules of ethics.

There were speeches on creating a relevant legislative field in CIS member nations pertaining to genetic researches taking into account the international legislation.

It’s worth to mention especially the speech made by Mauricio Salvi, representative of the European Commission on genetic testing. Mr. Salvi noted that the genetic testing is of great importance for the development of science, it is of interest also from the political viewpoint: the science on life and biotechnology is of strategic great importance and occupies the second place after high technologies, which actively contributes to the development of the anchored economy on science. The democratic society must provide in a way that it won’t be applied for hind goals and not contradict the UN adopted basic human rights. So, it must get developed with the inter-agreed actions of the scientists, society and politicians. The genetic testing has also a goal to reveal the hereditary diseases: it only explains the reasons, but not serves for the real goals of health. The establishment of the genetic bank must be accompanied, first of all, with the information secrecy, protection of human rights and be fulfilled by the citizen’s consent. That’s why it’s necessary to have an explanatory work in the wide circles of the society, informing about the vital, great medical role and importance of this study.

The second session of the commission was dedicated to the discussion of the model laws of CIS countries and organizational issues.

Sergey Doroguntsov, Deputy Chairman on science and education of the Supreme Rada of Ukraine was re-elected the Commission Chairman, Ruben Hovsepyan and Vladimir Zdanovich were elected deputies as representatives of Armenia and Belarus.

The commission discussed the model bill “On the Status of the Employee of the Educational Sphere,” which as Mr. Doroguntsov informed, was thoroughly discussed and deserved 9 expertise conclusions. As the speaker estimated, the bill will raise the social status of the employee of the educational sphere. Though Mr. Mamidinov, representative of Tajikistan, considered some articles not being fulfilled in one part of the member nations, but mentioned at the same time that the presented model can serve an example for the development of the national legislation of the member countries. Mr. Zdanovich, representative of Belarus, noted that the teacher’s salary should not be less than is the salary of the employee of the production sphere. The commission endorsed the bill taking into account the fulfilled proposals.

The commission also endorsed the bill “On Innovation Activity,” and the discussion of the bill “On Non State Higher Educational Institutions” was postponed being substantiated that in a number of member nations the sphere is successfully regulated by the law “On Education.”

MP Ruben Hovsepyan informed about the bills being in circulation in RA National Assembly and being discussed, which refer to science and education.

In the commission they also discussed issues connected with humanitarian cooperation, scientific and educational integration of CIS countries. Juri Konev, RF State Duma MP, commission member was awarded with a diploma of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly for impeccable and active work.

At the end of the session Mr. Doroguntsov, commission chairman, informed that the next session of the commission will be held in March.

The next session of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Economic and Financial Issues was held presided by Gagik Minasyan, Committee Chairman on NA Financial-Credit, Budgetary and Economic Affairs. After approving the session those present elected Gyulchekhra Bozorova, representative of the Republic of Tajikistan as Deputy Chairman of the Commission.

The Commission made decisions on the two model draft laws. They referred to the draft laws “On State Reserve” and “On Bank Bankruptcy:” it was proposed to IPA CIS Council to put the draft law with the endorsement on the agenda at the November 18 upcoming session, providing speeches by the commission. Mr. Minasyan will give a speech in the plenary session on the model bill “On Bank Bankruptcy.” A decision was also made in the session on working results in 2005 of St. Petersburg international economic forum. The information of Secretariat of IPA CIS Council on that by the presentation of Ion Lipchiu, permanent representative of the parliament of the Republic of Moldova and Council Secretariat, was accepted. Three thousand participants from 60 countries of the world (including 11 CIS countries) attended the 9^th forum held on June 14-16, 2005.

One of the agenda issues of the session was also the question of the use of the model laws in the sphere of economy and finance of IPA CIS member nations. Gagik Minasyan and Vladimir Tarachev, member of RF FC State Duma gave speeches in favour of the effectiveness of model laws. The latter spoke about the necessity of creating a unified legal field in CIS territory and harmonizing the laws. Besides, the creation of the model laws promotes the experience exchange, and every time there won’t be a problem “to invent a bicycle”, said the MP.

At the end of the session the commission approved the preliminary venue, date and agenda of the next session. It is envisaged that the next session would be held in February-March, 2006 in St. Petersburg. On the agenda of the session it is planned to put the model bills “On Banks and Bank Activity” and “On Mutual Insurance Companies,” issues on the use of the model laws in the sphere of economy and finances of IPA CIS Member nations, the activity of the IPA Permanent commission on the economic and financial issues in 2005 and the issue of setting up a working group on developing the model draft law “On Joint Stock Companies”

The agenda of the commission session was covered with this.