On July 7, 2003, Minister Oskanian received the delegation headed by Ambassador Ago. Both the Minister and the Ambassador noted that this last year has been particularly difficult, since, due to the many elections held in Armenia ­ beginning with the elections for local governments in the fall of 2002 and continuing with presidential and parliamentary elections this spring‹Armenia has delayed completing certain obligations which it must meet by the end of 2003.

During the meeting and the subsequent Press Conference, Minister Oskanian announced that the visiting European delegation had been informed of the readiness of Armenia's leadership and the various political forces to take the necessary intermediate steps to insure that by the end of this year, the main stumbling blocks are removed: reforming Armenia's electoral law, lifting of the death penalty, and resolving those legislative changes that were to have been made through Constitutional reforms.

The Minister explained that the referendum on the Constitutional reform package failed, and Armenia cannot hold a similar referendum for at least a year. He pointed out that, nevertheless, the President and the leading political forces have agreed to take certain clear intermediate steps in September, when the National Assembly reconvenes, to tackle the main concerns.

Among them will be an examination and consideration of the legislative and regulatory changes proposed to Armenia's electoral law made by the Council of Europe and others.

As for the death penalty, the President will commute the sentences of those on death row to life imprisonment, and will wait to complete abolition of the death penalty through the ratification of the 6th Protocol of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, by Parliament in September.

The reforms themselves include various provisions which the President will implement until their final inclusion in the Constitution. They include the appointment of an Ombudsman.

The Minister pointed out that the media law and other legislation which were not passed during the last session of the National Assembly, will be up for consideration again.

Ambassador Ago expressed his satisfaction that the Armenian government was aware of its responsibilities and had made such specific suggestions as to how to meet them within the specified time frame.

In their meeting, the Minister and the Ago Group also discussed regional issues, including the prospects for normalizing relations with Turkey, as well as the Nagorno Karabagh resolution process, which is also a Council of Europe consideration. Both sides made it clear that all necessary steps need to be taken to settle the conflict peacefully.