Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

The first meeting of the government-civil society anti-corruption working group took place on 23 September 2015 within the framework of the “Multi-faceted anti-corruption promotion” project. The meeting was organised by the Armenian Ministry of Justice, the “Armenian Young Lawyers Association” NGO and its partner “Freedom of Information Centre in Armenia” NGO. The project is co-funded by the EU and the OSCE office in Yerevan.

Representatives from the EU Delegation to Armenia and the OSCE office in Yerevan, informational organisations, the Armenian government, other state and local government bodies, civil society organisations (CSO) and other agencies participated in the event.

The Deputy Head of the Cooperation Section of the EU Delegation, Jose-Maria Medina Navarro, stressed the importance of anti-corruption initiatives during the event: "I want to reiterate how supportive the European Union is in pushing through reforms in support of anti-corruption, civil society and other social institutions. One of the reasons behind the support is the commitment that we have taken bilaterally at the latest summit in Riga. No country or region is free from corruption but we can share the experience and support the positive developments. We need to fight against corruption to diminish its role in the society".

Deputy Minister of the Armenian Ministry of Justice, Suren Krmoyan, reiterated Navarro’s sentiment: "Today is a very important day for all of us… First of all, today, after the anti-corruption coalition’s approval of the 2015-2018 Armenian anti-corruption strategy, is the first time we are presenting and discussing the strategy with CSOs. I want to thank all the representatives of the CSOs for their cooperation during the last year and a half. They participated very actively in all the discussions and supported us very much".

The main goal of the “Multi-faceted anti-corruption promotion” project is to increase the role of CSOs in the promotion and implementation of anti-corruption reforms. The monitoring skills of CSOs and mass media will be enhanced within the framework of the project. Many anti-corruption meetings will be organised in the Armenian regions for CSOs and mass media in order to help them better perceive the problems of corruption and freedom of information.

The goal of the planned events is to increase opportunities for anti-corruption activities. Small grants will be provided to increase the efficiency of public control and the implementation of monitoring, control and investigative projects. Sustainable CSO-government dialogue will be developed in order to strengthen anti-corruption institutional mechanisms.

The duration of the project is 3 years (January 2014-December 2016). The overall budget of the project is €650,000, € 585,000 of which is being provided by the EU.