The European Union and Council of Europe joint programme on Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) 2019-2021 held its second Steering Committee meeting for Armenia on Monday 8 February 2021 in an online format. The aim of the meeting was to present the state of implementation and the results of the Programme and discuss plans for 2021.
Participants assessed the impact of the COVID-19 on the PGG implementation and discussed mitigation measures undertaken by the project teams to address the most urgent needs of the Armenian authorities with regard to the domestic reforms in the field of judiciary, combating corruption and discrimination.
The programme is implementing two country-specific projects in Armenia for the period 2019-2021, with a total budget of EUR 2 630 000. These projects assist the country’s authorities to strengthen institutional capacities to fight and prevent corruption and to implement judicial reforms, through two components: 1) by enhancing the independence and professionalism of the judiciary and 2) by supporting the criminal justice reform and harmonising the application of European standards in Armenia.
In addition to the country-specific projects, Armenia is also taking part in four regional projects aimed at strengthening measures to prevent and combat economic crime, strengthening the profession of lawyer in line with European standards, facilitating the access of women to justice and strengthening the access to justice through non-judiciary redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech, with a total budget of 3,7 million euros.
The European Union provides 80% of the funding of the projects, whilst the Council of Europe provides 20% of the funding and is in charge of their implementation.
Tigran Samvelian, Director of the European Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, Head of the European Union Delegation to Armenia and Verena Taylor, Director, Office of the Directorate General of Programmes, Council of Europe, opened the meeting.
