Unions of legal entities are facing up the fact as a result of legislative changes. Today, a discussion on current problems with participation of the representatives of state authorities and the interested parties was held within the framework of the EU-funded “Commitment Constructive to Dialogue” project.
According to the amendments made to the Civil Code on 16 December of the previous year, the unions of legal entities are obliged to harmonize their statutes with the requirements of the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations and to re-register, because as a result of legislative changes, unions of legal entities, as such, will cease to exist and must be re-registered as non-governmental organizations. This is due to the fact that within the framework of the existing legal regulations a non-governmental organization may be established both by individuals and by legal entities.
The expert of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association Mariam Zadoyan noted that the main problem of re-registration process of legal entities is that, according to the Ministry of Justice, the term “re-registration” is not defined by law, and thus, it is necessary to submit the documents required for reorganization of the legal entity in case of re-registration.
And in this case all legal entities that are founders of the non-governmental organization founded by the reorganization, in addition to the decision of the General Assembly on the establishment of a non-governmental organization, are obliged to present their separate decisions on it.
In this connection Emin Yeritsyan, President of the Union of Communities of Armenia said that at the time of establishment of their Union they had about 900 members, and after the final consolidation of the communities the Union will have more than 500 members. Consequently, this is a disproportionate and meaningless burden on the shoulders of legal entities.
In addition, one of the required documents is the transfer act on which there are also conflicting positions and issues. Arkady Sahakyan, the Lawyer of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises raised this issue.
Earlier, legislative proposals to address these issues were presented to the Justice Ministry by the Armenian Lawyers’ Association. Gagik Mkrtchyan, advisor to the Head of the State Register of Legal Entities, who was present at the discussion, mentioned that the Ministry of Justice has begun working out a new package of legislative drafts at present, which will soon be presented to public discussions. The draft also includes the above mentioned recommendations.
At the end of the workshop, the UCAs decided to mobilize UCAs operating in Armenia and submit a joint proposal to the RA Minister of Justice to clarify the term “re-registration” referring to UCAs in the RA Law on Non-Governmental Organizations, making it as compliant with the law through re-registration of changes to the Charter of the UCAs, thereby considering the as legally binding requirements as fulfilled.
The key players in the field of the unions of legal entities were participating in the working discussion, among them: the Union of Communities of Armenia, Union of Information Technology Enterprises, European Business Association, Union of Banks of Armenia, Union of Credit Organizations of Armenia, Association of Armenian Freight Forwarders (AAFF), The Association of Social Enterprises of Armenia (ASEA), Public Defenders Association, Armenian Adventure Travel Association (AATA) and others.
The “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” Project is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO in cooperation with its partners; Agora Central Europe o.p.s (an NGO from the Czech Republic), Armenian Center for Democratic Education-CIVITAS, “International Center for Human Development” Public Organization, SME Cooperation Association and Union of Communities of Armenia.
