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It is really a great honour for us to welcome you in this Conference, which was held in Armenia last time exactly 15 years ago, in 2007, we remember it with great warmth. The Conference was held online during the two years conditioned by COVID-19 pandemic, and after two-year interval organising it in Armenia is really a great honour for us, and why not a success.

The European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD), being founded in 1977 on the initiative of the Speakers of the European Parliamentary Assemblies, this year celebrates the 45^th anniversary of its creation. On this occasion let me congratulate everybody. During its whole activities the Centre has been an important and useful scientific platform for the experts of the parliaments. On November 10 and 11 the NA Chief of Staff, Secretary General Vahan Naribekyan said about this during the Annual Conference of Correspondents of European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD).

Welcoming the participants of the ECPRD Annual Conference of Correspondents, Vahan Naribekyan noted that the last years were full of various calamities for the world: COVID-19 pandemic, in parallel with the pandemic the disastrous 44-day war in 2020 unleashed by Azerbaijan and directed against Artsakh and Armenia, the Armenian people, which destabilised also the whole region, then the war in Ukraine. According to him, while facing the calamities the parliaments of all countries, including the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the Staff of the National Assembly worked in emergency situations.

The NA Chief of Staff, Secretary General underlined that the regular activity of any parliament is ensured by the Staff of that parliament, also by the scientific potential of the latter, and the importance and the necessity of that scientific potential is felt in the very groundbreaking, force majeure situations. “Each of you, being the heads and the employees of the Research, Expertise Centres of your parliaments, are considered to be the basis and the pillar of the scientific potential of the parliament without which the activity of the parliament is rightfully impossible to imagine,” Vahan Naribekyan said.

The first day of the meeting the experience of the Republic of Armenia in the sphere of parliamentary oversight was presented. The Armenian expert-lawyers, the representatives of the Expertise and Analytical Department of the Staff gave speeches. It was noted that after the constitutional amendments in 2015, the parliament was endowed with oversight authorities and functions of the post-legislative monitoring of the laws. The representatives of the Expertise and Analytical Department of the NA Staff briefly presented the tools being used during their studies, the procedure of the work and their experience of supporting the Standing Committees.

The guests visited Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex. They laid flowers at the Eternal Fire perpetuating the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims, honoured in silence the memory of the Holy Martyrs. They have been at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, got acquainted with the exhibits certifying about the Genocide.

On the second day of the meeting issues on the activities of the Centre were discussed, the cooperation between the staffs of parliaments of the European countries through that platform and the exchange of information of legal character were discussed.

The event was held under the auspice of the National Assembly within the framework of the Project Modern Parliament for a Modern Armenia, which is financed by the Government of Sweden.