YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–The next special meeting of the National Assembly is likely to be called to discuss the program of the newly formed government–Vice-Speaker of the Parliament Gagik Aslanian told Noyan Tapan.
According to the Armenian Constitution–the government must submit its program to the Parliament within 20 days after being formed. The new government was formed by the president’s decree on November 13–thus the 20-day term expires on December 3–three days prior to the next three-day session of Parliament to be held on December 6. Therefore–the discussion of the government’s program is only possible at a special session.
Aslanian also said that the parliamentary committees will hold discussions of the 2000 draft budget after the government’s program is approved. He denied the information that the government submitted the draft budget to the Parliament on November 1–but withdrew it a few day later to revise. Therefore–the parliamentary committees currently cannot discuss the budget even if they wish to.