October 2, the 14th International Conference on “International Experience of Interaction of
Constitutional Courts and Parliaments in Guaranteeing the Supremacy of the Constitution” was held, where deputies of the National Assembly, members of the Constitutional Court (CC), judges, employees of the state power and local self-government of different bodies, scientists, lawyers, lecturers of the higher educational institutions, representatives of NGO and journalists.
Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Hovik Abrahamayan welcomed the participants of the conference.
“Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Dear participants of the international conference,
I welcome and greet all those present,
The convening of this conference jointly with the National Assembly of the Republic of 
Armenia, Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, Constitutional Court of Armenia and International Conference of Organs Constitutional Justice of the Countries of Young Democracy pursues a goal to raise the tendencies of the European experience and development together with you and sum them up in this important sphere of cooperation.
Serious changes have been made in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia by November 27, 2005 referendum. The whole value system of the Constitution presently is anchored on principles of the protection of human rights and citizen’s fundamental rights and freedoms, guaranteeing of the rule of law, the establishment of democratic power in our country, separation and balance of the authorities, establishing effective local self-government and other constitutional fundamental principles.
The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia has done a huge work in complying the acting legislation with constitutional amendments, filling in the legislation gaps, in establishing constitutional democracy. Only during the last convocation the National Assembly adopted 545 laws, 47 decisions and ratified 92 international treaties.
It’s a fact that every law is a result of political mutual consent, and the revelation of its constitutionality by authoritative constitutional body, in our opinion, should be observed as a support from the view of more effectively implementing its legislative function by the parliament.
While implementing its legislative policy the National Assembly extremely highlights the coordinated work with other bodies of the power.
Being led by the logic that in October 2008 a special working group was set up in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia in order to 
study the legal positions of the Constitutional Court and elaborate proposals of legislative initiatives. We find that such operative response is an important step for taking into account the effective cooperation and legal positions of the Constitutional Court.
Members of the parliaments and constitutional courts of many countries take part in this conference. I express my deep gratitude for accepting our invitation and for taking part in the conference. I am sure that effective solutions have been found during the years in all countries in guaranteeing active cooperation and supremacy of Constitution. As a result of constitutional amendments our country turned into a new stage of building a legal state and civil society. On the path of the establishment of constitutional democracy in the country we should overcome difficulties, which the countries of classical democracy of the Western Europe related to through years, and which presently are characteristic to almost all young democratic countries. So, with such representative staff members it can be useful not only for the participants of the conference, but also it will be an important contribution in this sphere from the view of revelation of all-European tendencies of the developments and generalization.
I also think that the cooperation of democratic institutes and searching joint solutions is useful and can be also exemplary for other bodies of state power, and this format of dialogue is worth of encouraging.
Dear colleagues,
I would like to convey my word of gratitude to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and personally to Mr. Buquicchio for supporting us and for active cooperation. The implementation of the constitutional reforms in Armenia was the result of our many years’ joint efforts. Every year more than one dozen of draft laws are submitted to the examination of the Venice Commission, the conclusions of which are very useful for us, the conclusions of which are very useful for us. From now on we will also continue the active cooperation with the Venice Commission, I am sure it will have positive role in more effectively moving forward the general process of our European integration. Taking advantage I congratulate the General Secretary of the Venice Commission Mr. Gianni Buquicchio on the occasion of being awarded an Order of Honour by the President of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Serzh Sargsyan.
The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia established active bilateral relations with the parliaments of many countries. During these days the delegation headed by the President of the Senate of the Belgian Kingdom Mr. Armand De Decker is in Armenia on an official visit. Our colleagues kindly agreed also to take part in the works of this conference.
Concluding my word I greet all of you once again and wish you effective work and I would like 
to express gratitude to the President of the Constitutional Court to Mr. Gagik Harutyunyan for organizing this important conference in Armenia.
Thank you.”
President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Gagik Harutyunyan made an opening speech. He is confident that the conference will give opportunity to hold a concerned dialogue on guaranteeing the supremacy of the Constitution between parliaments and Constitutional courts. In this context he touched upon the multi-layer inter-connection of the parliaments and judicial constitutional control institutes. Mr. Harutyunyan noted that on the one hand the CC assesses the constitutionality of the decisions and laws adopted by the legislative body, but on the other hand the parliament takes part in the formation of CC, the provision of its material independence, defines the order of the activity of the court and judicial procedures. According to him, they are inter-conditioned functions, and their effective exercise is directed to guaranteeing the supremacy of the Constitution.
In his opening speech the Secretary General of the Venice Commission Mr. Gianni Buquicchio talked about the relations of the constitutional courts and parliaments. In his assessment, those relations are rather expansive, as the parliament, without having Constitution or functioning of commenting the laws, is 
a body of creating Constitution and other legal acts. The right of commenting is reserved to the CC. The parliament, in its turn, is obliged to adopt the conclusion of CC on the revision of this or that law. It was noted that the parliament, as a law-creating body, at the same time creates a law on CC and has the right of revising it.
The parliaments also participate the formation of the CC. The Secretary General of the Venice Commission touched upon the problem of CC members in different countries, highlighted the provision of the judges’ independence and the exclusion of the market relations.
President of the Constitutional Court Mr. Gagik Harutyunyan presented RA President’s Mr. Serzh Sargsyan welcome speech.
The first sitting of the conference CC President Mr. 
Gagik Harutyunyan and General Secretary of the Venice Commission Mr. Gianni Buquicchio.
Within the framework of the theme “Guaranteeing supremacy of the Constitution as a basic safeguard for the constitutional stability in the rule of law state” gave speeches President of the Belgian Senate Mr. Armand De Decker, Judge of the President of the European Court of Human Rights Mr. Josep Casadevall, President of RA CC Mr. Gagik Harutyunyan, President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia Mr. George Papuashvili, President of the Committee of Senate of Poland. Mr. Piotr Zientarski, President of the Constitutional Court of Tajikstan Mr. Makhkam Makhmudov, President of the Constitutional Court Pyotr Miklashevich, Member of the 
Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic Mrs. Eva Dundačkova, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Mr. Petro Stetsiuk gave speeches. The speakers touched upon the main obstacles of constitutionality of public life in transitional public systems, main challenges of guaranteeing supremacy of the Constitution, peculiarities of value reforming systems, inertial processes, various distortions of constitutional basic values and other issues. The participants exchanged opinions on disputable issues of the sounded reports and presented relevant observations.
RA NA Vice Speaker Mrs. Arevik Petrosyan and CC President Mr. Gagik Harutyunyan chaired at the second session of the conference.
Many reports were also made with the title “Parliamentary guarantees for exercising efficient constitutional control.”
Ms. Arevik Petrosyan said that for elaborating the legislative drafts stemming from the decisions of the Constitutional Court in October 2008 by the order of Speaker of the National Assembly a special working group was set up, which carried out a huge amount of work, studying the decisions adopted by the Constitutional Court in 2006. As a result, more than a dozen of draft laws and legislative packages have been elaborated.
Summing up all these presented Mrs. Petrosyan said that passing through the 1st and 2nd phases of the establishment and systemized changes the process of the Armenian parliamentarism and development of constitutionality is in the third, qualitative new systemized effective interaction.
Judge of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania Mr. Pranas Kuconis, President of the Constitutional Court of Romania Mr. Valentin Puskas Zoltan, Member of the Georgian Parliament Mr. Pavle Kublashvili, President of the Constitutional Court of Latvia Mr. Gunar Kutris, Member of the Constitutional Court 
Andorra Mr. Miguel Herrero De Minon, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Legislation and State Building of the Parliament of Belarus Mr. Evgeny Smirnov touched upon the authorities and obligations of the Constitutional Court, anti-constitutionality of legal acts, the role and significance of CC in the system of the state management, in the sphere of the protection of human rights, the honoring of the Constitution by the citizens, the compliance of the laws with the Constitution, the independent activity of the courts, the cooperation of the European courts of human rights of European courts and local courts.
The conference will continue the works on October 3.