The Question of the Environment Minister's Continued Service Will Not Be Presented for Discussion by the Prime Minister

The question of the continued service of Environment Minister Erik Grigoryan will not be presented for discussion by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The parliamentary faction 'Enlightened Armenia' announced its dissatisfaction with the minister's work and submitted inquiries regarding the ministry.

Guided by the regulations of the National Assembly, a proposal was made to submit a decision to the Assembly regarding the discussion of Minister Erik Grigoryan's continued service in the Prime Minister's discussions. However, before the vote on the draft, the leader of the 'My Step' faction, Lilit Makunts, stated that although they welcome the practice of making inquiries and demanding clarifications, they have concluded that there is no basis for demanding the minister's resignation, therefore they will vote against it.

Meanwhile, the member of the Prosperous Armenia faction, Naira Zohrabyan, noted that they were not present at the session yesterday due to a political boycott and did not hear the justifications of the 'Enlightened Armenia' faction. Furthermore, there is currently a parliamentary investigative committee studying environmental issues, and they will address the minister's service after its findings.

Accordingly, the members of Prosperous Armenia also announced that they would not participate in the vote.

Seventeen deputies voted in favor of presenting the question of Erik Grigoryan's continued service to the Prime Minister for discussion, 67 voted against, and 1 abstained. The decision was not accepted.

During yesterday's session, 'Enlightened Armenia' member Mane Tandilyan presented their grievances regarding the work carried out in the field of the environment. She stated that ecological security is the state of protection of human vital, important ecological interests, primarily the right to have a clean, healthy, and favorable surrounding natural environment for life. According to Tandilyan, none of the directions mentioned in the government's program are being implemented, and it can be said that often the direct opposite is happening: 'You say the government's policy in the mining industry is aimed at transparency, ensuring high accountability before the public, yet the process of revealing the actual beneficiaries remains incomplete. Throughout your response, there is an impression that the government does not grasp environmental issues and replaces them with economic problems.'

The government's response to the 'Enlightened Armenia' inquiry was presented at the National Assembly session by Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, which did not satisfy the deputies: 'The main task for the government is to minimize the harmful effects on the environment, particularly air, climate, water, soil, flora, and fauna, to eliminate the over-exploitation of natural resources, and to ensure the implementation of preventive measures. Our policy in the mining sector is aimed at transparency, ensuring high accountability before the public, and we have initiated the development of a strategy for sectoral development, which is currently being implemented by the Ministry of Environment,' Avinyan said.