02/10/2026 | 10:18:37 Thank you. Dear President, Dear colleagues, And dear Ms Rian VOGELS, I would like to congratulate you on behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe for the report. And I would like to thank also the Committee on Rules, Ethics and Immunities for the work behind this report. The restructuring of our rules of procedures may appear at the first sight to be a technical exercise, but clear rules are an essential part of the credibility and effectiveness of any parliamentary... 30/09/2026 | 11:21:56 Dear President, Dear colleagues, Dear Ms Valentina GRIPPO, Dear Valentina, I would like to congratulate you on this interesting report and important discussion within the Chamber. We do agree, all of us, that the media is not an additional advantage of democracy; it is indeed one of the foundations. Without free and independent media, citizens cannot make informed decisions, and society cannot effectively hold those in power to account. Today we discussed the financial independence of the... 28/09/2026 | 15:43:51 Madam President, Dear colleagues, It's a pleasure to be back at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with a renewed mandate. Following free and fair elections in Armenia, the political force led by Prime Minister Nikol PASHINYAN received the vast majority of the vote and was entrusted with forming the government. I would argue that those elections were significant in different respects: the scale and nature of foreign interference, alleged vote-buying by the opposition parties... 26/06/2026 | 10:51:35 Honourable Chair, Dear colleagues, I always believe that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is not the appropriate place to answer members of your delegation. But nevertheless, I cannot leave the remarks made by Mr Hayk MAMIJANYAN unanswered. So, recent parliamentary elections in Armenia were conducted in a peaceful, orderly and democratic manner, as confirmed by varied missions. Armenian citizens freely expressed their political will and the majority chose a path of... 21/04/2026 | 10:35:50 Honourable Chair, Dear colleagues, First of all, I would like to thank Ms Elisabetta GARDINI for presenting this timely and necessary report. Violence, intimidation and hate speech directed at politicians are not simply personal attacks. They are attacks on representative institutions, on political pluralism and on a free exchange of ideas that sustains democratic life. When elected representatives are threatened into silence, it's not only politicians who lose their voices; citizens lose... 28/01/2026 | 11:46:35 Dear President, Dear colleagues, I would like to thank all the speakers for a debate that has been thoughtful, sincere and, at times, rightly challenging. The diversity of views expressed today reflects not division, but the seriousness with which we all approach the future of democratic systems. I would like to thank the Committee members. I'd like to thank the Committee Secretariat for the huge amount of work done. What has emerged clearly from the discussion is a shared recognition of one... 28/01/2026 | 10:14:42 Distinguished members, Colleagues, It's an honour to stand before you today to present the report. The revised title is not a matter of semantics; it marks a decisive shift in perspective away from viewing young people as passive beneficiaries of democracy towards recognising them as full partners at its very core. When we meet today, the timing is both urgent and challenging. Across Europe, young citizens are expressing new hopes, but also deep and growing frustration. Recent polls and... 08/04/2025 | 18:30:35 Thank you, honourable Chair. Dear colleagues, On behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, I would like to thank the Committee and the rapporteur for their thorough work on the proposed modifications to the Assembly's rules. This is a sensitive and important exercise, one that goes to the heart of how this institution functions and presents itself to the public we serve. We particularly welcome the inclusion and engagement of the youth rapporteur in this process. It's not... 08/04/2025 | 10:29:33 Thank you, Madam President. Foreign interference is no longer something exceptional. It became a constant pressure, quiet, strategic, and often invisible. It doesn't come in a form of an open aggression. Foreign interference comes not as a single attack, but as a strategy. These information campaigns that seed doubts in our elections, cyber attacks that erode trust in our institutions, financial channels that infiltrate political spaces, and targeted attempts to polarise and destabilise open... 30/01/2025 | 16:20:15 Dear colleagues, It's an honour to stand here before you to address an issue of timeless relevance and urgent contemporary importance: women in the economy. I would like to extend my gratitude to the rapporteur for her commitment to advancing gender equality and publishing this very important report. Over the decades, women have made extraordinary strides in the economy. Women today lead corporations, shape innovative industries and create transformative enterprises, yet we cannot ignore the...