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The parliament the sitting of April 13 began by voting: the legislative initiatives debated in the previous sitting, except the draft law of the amendments to the law on Welfare Minimum Basket and Welfare Minimum Budget, submitted by the ARF. The authors proposed to postpone the voting, meanwhile the political forces of the coalition announced about their decision of not taking part in the voting.

By the Open Lesson program the parliament hosted the students of the Base College of Gyumri Branch of Armenian State University of Economy, whom welcomed the NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan in the name of legislators.

The parliament in the second reading procedure debated a number of draft laws.

The NA deputy Araik Hovhannisyan submitted the deputies’ draft law On Making Addendum to the law On RA Holidays and Memorial Days. The MPs propose to fix November 10 by law as Local Self-Government (LSG) Day, dedicated to the 15^th anniversary of the formation of the LSG bodies. The representatives form the LSG and other organizations thanked the co-author of the draft law, speaker of the Parliament Hovik Abrahamyan for the support.

In his extraordinary speech the Speaker of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan once more highlighted the activities of the local self-government bodies and its role in building statehood. In parallel with the establishment of that institute we shall facilitate the burden of the self-government bodies, the government and the President of the Republic, the NA Speaker said and added that we shall do our best for developing the LSG. To Mr Abrahamyan’s conviction, the local self-government bodies, the elders are the important structures, which are well aware of our citizen’s problems and focus on the problems concerning the voter, the citizen and resident. Highlighting their role, the head of the parliament considered necessary the decentralization of the authorities towards the communities: urban and rural, as in the communities they precisely see the existing problems. The speaker opines that if the heads of the communities, the Elders, the staff work well, the government, the President of the Republic will have fewer problems. In this respect the head of the parliament is for the decentralization of the authorities for the benefit of LSG. The NA Speaker has recently noticed change in the government’s strategy: opposite process is going on, they have again begun to focus the authorities in the hand of the government, Ministry of Territorial Administration. Hovik Abrahamyan considered this approach wrong and once again stressed that we should support the LSG. The ministries should elaborate a policy and control the procedure of its implementation, the bodies of the territorial administration and local self-government bodies should implement them on the spot, the NA Speaker said. The speaker will consider welcoming if the government debates the issue of making bigger the communities. Today there are 910 communities in the republic, which to the NA Speaker’s assessment is big luxury for our country, 300 communities are enough for efficient work. According to Hovik Abrahamyan, the National Assembly is in its right path and highlights the role of the local self- government bodies, fixing November 10 as LSG Day. The NA Speaker expressed willingness to continue this policy and add the authorities of the local self-government bodies.

The parliament also debated the proposal made by Hovik Abrahamyan and Karen Avagyan on Making Amendments and Addenda to the law On General Education.

The draft law on Public Service was submitted for the assessment.

Four international treaties were submitted for ratification of the parliament: the agreement On Mutually Establishing Commercial Representations between RA Government and RF Government, the agreement On Readmission between RA Government and RF Government (with enclosed protocol) signed in Yerevan on August 20, 2010, and the Convention (with enclosed protocol) On Excluding the Incomes and Double Taxation of the Property and Preventing Tax Evasion between the RA and Republic of Slovenia signed in Yerevan on October 11, 2010, the additional protocol (Protocol III) to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and relating to an Adoption of Distinctive Emblem (Protocol III), December 8, 2005. The Standing Committee on Foreign Relations debated and guaranteed to approve them.

The Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan proposed the deputies to completely pass the draft law On RA National Academy of Sciences.

In accordance with the NA Rules of Procedure, at the last hour of the Wednesday sitting the deputies address the members of the government.