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

Before discussing the issues on the agenda, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, the members of the Government observed a minute of silence in memory of those who died in the 44-day war. "Today is November 9, and I ask that we honor the memory of all our brothers and sisters who died in the 44-day war of 2020 with a minute of silence," said Nikol Pashinyan.

Moving on to the discussion of agenda items, the Government approved the measure and the procedure for providing social assistance to cover the primary consumer needs of those forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh. As noted by the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Narek Mkrtchyan, the decision proposes to implement a two-month social support measure for the forcibly displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh, for the months of November and December: 50,000 AMD per month.

"The beneficiaries of the measure will be the beneficiaries of the 100,000 AMD one-time support measure, with some exceptions. Persons temporarily residing in hotels or guest houses, not located in the Republic of Armenia, and having funds in their bank accounts exceeding the 2 million AMD threshold will not be beneficiaries of the measure. An important observation: we are not talking about family members, including children, but about the persons who possess these funds," said the minister, adding that an exception will be made for people receiving compensation from the National Foundation for Servicemen Insurance, meaning that the restriction will not apply to them even if they have 2 million AMD on their bank accounts.

The Executive approved the package of bills "On Amendments and Additions to the Law on State Pensions", "On Amendments to the Law on State Allowances". The purpose of the package of bills is to specify the procedures for realizing the right to pension, maternity allowance (assigned to an unemployed person) of persons forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh by reserving the authority to define the specifics of these procedures to the Government. In particular, it is planned to establish the right to a pension of a person with refugee status. It is recommended to take into account work experience, other activities, periods of military service in the territory of Nagorno Karabakh until September 19, 2023 when assigning pension in the Republic of Armenia in accordance with the procedure established by the Government.

The package of bills "On the adoption of the Law on the Environmental Protection Service of the Republic of Armenia and making amendments and additions to the related laws" aimed at ensuring the proper protection of the environment were approved. According to the substantiation, the results of the analysis make it clear that the offenders, taking advantage of the above-mentioned legal regulations, carry out forestry violations mainly on non-working days and hours. The bills, in particular, propose to replace the Forestry Committee with the Environmental Protection Service. The service will be implemented with a duration of 24 hours of working time, which will ensure the continuous control of the areas and contribute to the timely detection and prevention of violations.

The Executive approved the bills on amendments and additions to Vocational Education and Training (VET) and related laws. The package of bills regulates the activities of the secondary vocational education system, the management and financial-economic relations of the sector, as well as the rights and responsibilities of legal and natural persons participating in them, including social partners. As a result of the adoption of the package of bills, a number of fundamental problems in the VET sector will be solved, which will contribute to the professional development of personnel in accordance with the requirements of the labor market, the formation of appropriate abilities and skills among students, the involvement of employers and the expansion of social partnership, integration into the European Education Area and mutual recognition of qualifications.