Epress.am News from Armenia
On December 4, the National Assembly unequivocally voted for Armenia’s Eurasian Economic Union Accession Treaty, signed on October 10 by Serzh Sargsyan in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The vote was 103 for, 7 against , and 1 MP abstained.
Among the party factions, all four members of the Heritage party voted against the treaty. The other three were Armenian National Congress (HAK) faction MP Nikol Pashinyan, independent MPs Edmon Marukyan and Khachatur Kokobelyan, while ARF-D MP Aghvan Vardanyan abstained. The HAK faction MP Hrant Bagratyan was absent from the vote, while he initially criticized the EEU accession treaty, but stated that he could not vote for or against, because legally such issues need to be put to a public referendum.
During the last four days, when the accession treaty was being discussed in the National Assembly, there had been protests outside the building against EEU accession. On November 14, the Constitutional Court discussed the EEU treaty through a written procedure and recognized it as Constitutional, despite the Union of Informed Citizens NGO representatives noting that there are anti-constitutional points in the treaty.
Recall, that Armenia will become a member of the EEU on January 1st, 2015 if the accession treaty is ratified in the parliaments of EEU member states Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.