29/09/2026 | 20:18:16 Madam President, Dear colleagues, Let me first thank both rapporteurs for their thorough work. Thank you. For years, Greece appeared before Europe as a country in crisis. Fingers were pointed. Stereotypes took hold. Today, the report recognises a different Greece: a recovering economy, and a democracy that remains, in its own words, “firmly rooted and resilient". Behind those words stand the extraordinary sacrifices of the Greek people. Unemployment has fallen from over 20% to below 8... 29/09/2026 | 11:13:27 Dear colleagues, A government may choose its migration policy. But it cannot choose to make the rest of Europe pay for its mistakes. That is what is at stake in Ceuta, a city which was Spanish long before the United States were either "united" or "states". Its citizens have every right to expect their border to be defended. Geography does not make them second-class Europeans. And no country guarding a European border should stand alone. We Greeks know what that means. At Evros in 2020, we... 20/04/2026 | 12:06:45 Madam President, Allow me first to thank the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's delegation that observed the elections in Kosovo, and especially Chairperson Mr Yunus EMRE and Vice-President Mr Georgios STAMATIS for the valuable work. The findings are indeed serious. The refusal to certify results for the main Kosovo-Serb party, the manipulation of preferential votes and discrepancies in voter records. They are not minor technicalities. They go to the heart of democratic... 28/01/2025 | 12:40:47 Thank you, Madam President. Dear colleagues, First allow me to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Marko BOŠNIAK, and to all of you who have spoken for your invaluable insights. The depth and breadth of your interventions are a powerful testament to the urgency Europe must embrace to address the profound challenges threatening the international rules-based order. One thing is clear from what has been said in this room: The Council of... 28/01/2025 | 10:12:49 Thank you, Mister President. Dear colleagues, allow me to begin by honouring the [inaudible, because of mic problems]. OK, I'll start again, I need a minute. Thank you, Mister President. Dear colleagues, allow me to begin by honouring the solemn occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust. The Holocaust remains one of the darkest chapters in human history, a chilling testament to the catastrophic failure of nations to uphold a rule-based international order. It serves as a haunting... 01/10/2024 | 16:12:20 Sorry, dear colleagues. There is a fundamental rule in foreign affairs. Foreign policy should never be dictated by domestic politics. Reducing broader national interests into the opportunism of electoral campaigning and party politics is the quickest path to national tragedies. Migration is a complex international issue of threats and opportunities. As such, it requires close pan-European co-operation and co-ordination. To labour under the illusion that effective management of migration can... 16/04/2024 | 17:27:44 Thank you, Mister President. For the next couple of hours we will be touching upon a deeply complicated issue, entrenched with particularities and nuances we might have never faced before in the Parliamentary Assembly. But again, this very reason might be precisely why there could be no better place to discuss this issue than here. This year the Council of Europe celebrates 75 years of existence. For the last 75 years, the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly protected and... 12/10/2022 | 11:22:30 Thank you, Mr President. Dear colleagues, On behalf of the Group of the European People's Party allow me to thank the rapporteurs for the work and the Monitoring Committee for its meticulous observations. We must confess nonetheless that this report is alarming. It's a signal that should activate us all in this Parliamentary Assembly - but above all, and most of all, the Turkish delegation. The report validates a harsh reality. Democracy in Türkiye has been deteriorating so fast and so much... 11/10/2022 | 10:50:09 Dear colleagues, The Western Balkans produce more history than they can consume, said Churchill. Yet, that history today lacks honouring. It needs recognition as it is none other than part of our history, European history. The report in question reaffirms the support for the European Union prospect of the Western Balkans. A promise that has been forgotten and is long overdue to the people of that region. I want to congratulate the rapporteur Mr George PAPANDREOU for his excellent work... 21/06/2022 | 10:24:31 Thank you, Mr President. I want to congratulate and thank Mr Bogdan KLICH on the draft report and recommendations he presented to us today. As I told him in Chania during the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy meeting, this report will be crucial for the future of this organisation. It constitutes one of the few opportunities we have to situate the Council of Europe at the heart of the European architecture during difficult times, times of revisionism and war. I want to underline...