On March 18, 2020, the European Union published a document entitled "Eastern Partnership policy beyond 2020", which outlines the new, long-term EU policy for the EaP program after 2020 and sets out the measures under this policy. On March 16, the “Luys” Foundation published an analysis entitled "The prospects for the EU Eastern Partnership program and Armenia", trying to outline the main projects on the future of the Eastern Partnership discussed by Europeans. The document, published on March 18, already clarifies some of the key EU policy approaches to the program. With this analysis, we have attempted to explore the document presented by the EU and understand what the EU's policy towards the EaP project will be after 2020. We presented the main ideas and priorities outlined in the document, and then tried to figure out by which model the EaP program will eventually move forward.

The budget execution report of Yerevan represents the main results – achievements and failures - of activities of the city council in the given period. It shows by how much the actual revenue collection deviates from the planned level. Additionally, the report demonstrates whether the expenditures were made in accordance with the prespecified plan. The budget execution report of Yerevan also characterizes the structure of actual revenues and expenditures. The goal of the present analysis is to study the foregoing report and to make necessary conclusions. Full material is only available in Armenian.

On March 3, 2020, during regular meetings, the National Assembly of RA adopted, in the first reading, a package of draft law “On Amending and Adding to the Constitutional Law of the RA “Judicial Code of the Republic of Armenia” and related draft laws. “Luys” foundation presented its comments on the draft laws when it still was at the stage of public discussions. In this analysis, we will examine the revised version of the package of drafts, which, among others, provides for changes in the system of disciplinary responsibility of judges, in the procedures and functions of the Commission for the prevention of corruption, in the field of declaring property and income. Full material is only available in Armenian․

EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) – “20 Deliverables for 2020” program is coming to an end, and this year EU countries plan to develop a new policy that should become the main guideline for the development of the EaP program in the coming years. Cooperation with the EU within the EaP program is one of the priorities of Armenia's foreign policy, so it is very important to understand what are the EU approaches to possible models of EaP project development. The purpose of this analysis is to understand which projects on the future of the Eastern Partnership are mainly discussed by Europeans, which of them have a greater chance of being implemented. We also tried to present Armenia's priorities within the framework of the program, assess the effectiveness of the steps taken by the Armenian authorities.

After the political events of 2018, the new Government of the Republic of Armenia announced about the beginning of an “economic revolution”, one of the key components of which is improvement of the investment environment in Armenia, increase the country's international investment position and attractiveness, and encouragement the flow of large investment to the Republic of Armenia.

The approaches to ensure investment growth were reflected in the pre-election programme of “My step” Alliance, which received the support of the majority of Armenian citizens in the 2018, as well as in the "Program of the Government of the Republic of Armenia" adopted on February 8, 2019.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the promises of the Government of Armenia and main stapes taken for their implementation, and to understand whether Armenia is moving in the right direction to attract investment. Full material is only available in Armenian. 

On March 3, 2020 the draft law of the Republic of Armenia "On Confiscation of Property of Illegal Origin" was included in the agenda of the regular sittings of the fourth session of the 7th National Assembly of the RA. The draft provides for the introduction of the institute of confiscation of property without sentencing in a criminal case, which in international practice is an exceptional means of combating particularly dangerous crimes. Despite the fact that from the state’s point of view confiscation of property of illegal origin, by means of civil proceedings, is an effective and simple way to combat crime, this institute contains the risk of abuse and serious violations of fundamental human rights. This is due to the fact that in international practice, as a rule, the confiscation is applied in cases where criminal prosecution is impossible due to a person’s death or circumstances caused by a person’s guilt that justify and make such extremely serious interference with human rights and guarantees of criminal proceedings proportional. This analysis presents a revised version of the opinion on the package of draft laws presented by the Ministry of Justice published by the “Luys” foundation on October 14, 2019. Full material is only available in Armenian.

In the present analysis, given the data published by the Statistical Committee of the RA, we study the recent social-economic developments in the economy of the RA. In particular, we consider the cumulative indicator of economic activity of the given month, its sectoral distribution, as well as the dynamics of individual sectors of the economy. We also analyze economic developments in the foreign trade, labour market and fiscal system of the RA. In addition, some aspects of the financial system (inflation, deposits and loans), as well as the behaviour of the exchange rate, are touched upon. Full material is only available in Armenian.

The purpose of this analysis is to identify whether the recorded economic growth in 2019 is enough to consider the “economic revolution” successful. Armenia's economic growth in 2019 was 7.6 percent. Is this a "revolutionary" indicator?Armenia's economic growth in 2019 is higher than in previous years, but even ignoring the high economic growth during pre-crisis (2001-2007) period, we can mention that in 2012 and 2017 the economic growth was almost as high as in 2019: 7.2% and 7.5% respectively. It turns out, that "economic revolution" means only 0.1 or 0.4 percentage points acceleration of economic growth. Otherwise, we can argue that there has been at least twice "revolutionary" economic growth in the past several years.

The study of indicators and indices published by international organizations allows to address two important problems. First, to assess the performance of the RA in the given period with the help of comprehensive numerical measures, as well as to make intertemporal comparisons in order to understand whether the country moves in the desirable direction. Second, to compare the performance of the RA with other countries to ascertain Armenia’s relative position in the region and Eurasian Economic Union. These results are important, since they help to derive the comprehensive assessment of the economic situation, which is needed both for the public and the private sector. The present analysis is aimed at addressing the foregoing problems. Full material is only available in Armenian.

The study of indicators and indices published by international organizations allows to address two important problems. First, to assess the performance of the RA in the given period with the help of comprehensive numerical measures, as well as to make intertemporal comparisons in order to understand whether the country moves in the desirable direction. Second, to compare the performance of the RA with other countries to ascertain Armenia’s relative position in the region and Eurasian Economic Union. These results are important, since they help to derive the comprehensive assessment of the economic situation, which is needed both for the public and the private sector. The present analysis is aimed at addressing the foregoing problems. Full material is only available in Armenian.