A regular Cabinet meeting took place today, chaired by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

The Government approved the draft laws on making amendments to the Civil Code of the Republic of Armenia and related laws. The legislative package proposes to exclude the opportunity of further legalization of arbitrary structures built after the entry into force of the law. Minister of Justice Karen Andreasyan noted that a line will be drawn in the process of legalization of illegal structures, after which the arbitrary structures will no longer be legalized. “But since the Government does not intend to cause the citizens and legal entities who already own the buildings to suffer great damage and the whole to be demolished, there is a clear mechanism by which the arbitrary buildings built prior to the adoption of the law will be legalized”, the Minister said. According to that mechanism, the citizens who had built arbitrary buildings after January 1, 2021 but before the law will entere into force, should start the legalization process especially quickly. These citizens will be given two months to apply to the Cadastre Committee.

Nikol Pashinyan also referred to the issue of giving the right to legalize the buildings built before the law coming into force, expressing concern that it might motivate people to engage in illegal construction before that. Based on the results of the discussion, it was decided to recognize the package of bills as urgent in order to speed up the process and prevent the possibility of people taking advanatge of the deadlines, and to submit it for discussion and adoption at the National Assembly extraordinary session. “We can convene an extraordinary session and adopt this law in an expedited procedure, but in the meantime, the authors of the bill must also find ways to address and raise our concerns in some way”, the PM said, adding that it’s necessary to take all measures to prevent the possible illegal constructions.

The Government made redistributions in the state budget and amendments to one of the previously adopted decisions for providing the necessary funds for the implementation of the three contracts signed with contractor and supplier organizations for 2021 in the sidelines of the “Gyumri Urban Roads Project” implemented with a loan and grants provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Within the framework of the program, in particular, it is planned to carry out rehabilitation of Gyumri city roads and modernization of the street lighting network.

The Government made a decision for ensuring the effective implementation of the M6 Vanadzor-Alaverdi-Georgia’s border interstate road project implemented with the support of the Asian Development Bank, North-South Road Corridor Development Program- Tranche 3, implemented with the support of the Asian Development Bank, North-South Road Corridor Development Program implemented with the support of the European Investment Bank (Tranche 3) and the 2nd Additional Programs for the Improvement of the Lifeline Road Network implemented with the support of the World Bank. In particular, the Vital Road Network Improvement Program is being implemented in 12 communities, in 10 of which have been completed. Out of the total 67 km, 55 has been completed.