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On October 9 the NA Chief of Staff, General Secretary Hrayr Tovmasyan met with the members of the Working Group created for strengthening the National Assembly and the Civil Society link.

Let us note that the legislative structure led by the Head of the Parliament conditioned by the most important mission of making the public participant of the law-making activity, adopted a policy providing a platform of debate to the society on behalf of the associations presenting the civil society. The National Assembly, being an open structure and a tribune of raising problems concerning the people, has permanently cooperated with the CSO Representatives and today continues the active cooperation. The event " Civil Society Day in the RA National Assembly" held several months ago was its bright evidence, as it had brought together hundreds of individuals concerned in different issues and representatives of different organizations. During these months the meetings continued, moreover, in a number of relevant committees the discussions gave expected results.

Let us remind that representatives from public sector and subdivisions of the parliament, whose activities are more interconnected with the civil sector of our country, are involved in the Working Group created for strengthening the National Assembly and the Civil Society link. The NA Public Relations and Media Department has fulfilled great volume of work, assuming the role of the forerunner for the implementation of a mission. The USAID Support to the RA NA Program (SANAP) also had a big role in the establishment of the NA-society dialogue.

The preconditions of reaching success were discussed during the next working meeting. The dialogue is already established, and the representatives of the Civil Society indicated concrete directions for providing positive result. It has been noted that aid of the Expertise Group, which will only work with the civil societies, is necessary for voicing more constructive proposals in future, and in terms of raising the level of awareness it has been proposed to provide meetings of the Committees with the marz organizations of the civil society. Taking into consideration, the international experience, the guests applied with proposal to the NA Chief of Staff, General Secretary Hrayr Tovmasyan to reserve NA Public Relations and Media Department the role of the so-called delegate of the Civil Society in the RA NA.

In Hrayr Tovmasyan’s word, the parliament is open for dialogue and is ready to do its utmost for calling into life all the reasonable recommendations, as one of the achievements of the newly independent Armenia is the formation of the very civil society.

At the end of the meeting the NA Chief of Staff, General Secretary Hrayr Tovmasyan handed letters of appreciation to a number of participants for making valuable contribution to the works of the organization and holding of the event " Civil Society Day in the RA National Assembly."