13/10/2022 | 12:46:21 Thank you very much, Mr President. I will speak on behalf of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy here. First of all, I would like say thanks very much to Mr Emanuelis ZINGERIS, the rapporteur, for this very, very important report. Earlier this morning, President Volodymyr ZELENSKYY emphasised how the entire international community must play a strong role during the current aggression. This urgent debate, exactly, is a small but significant demonstration that the Assembly intends... 22/06/2022 | 16:05:30 Mister President, this is a bit of an extraordinary situation because I am making a speech in this Hemicycle and it is the first time the speech is not mine. I am an alter ego for Ms Boriana ÅBERG from Sweden. It is an honour, it is a delight that I can give her speech. It is her speech but there is one paragraph I disagree with and I will make a new note about that when we are in that paragraph, otherwise it is her speech. Dear colleagues, I would like to start by paying tribute to the work... 21/06/2022 | 18:39:50 Mister President, It is so nice to speak after Ms Mai KIVELÄ, my country lady. The same country, the same subject. I start in the same way. Mister Frank SCHWABE and Madam Thórhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR, thanks very, very much for your excellent and very profound reports on a subject that is very actual and important for all of us today. I am actually just now reading a novel by a Russian writer who is living here in France: Andreï Makine. There is a motto in the novel and the motto is the... 21/06/2022 | 12:32:44 Mr President, I'm more than pleased to see the leader of the democratic Belarus Ms Sviatlana TSIKHANOUSKAYA here with us today. We have obviously followed very, very carefully the developments in your country, particularly after the 2020 presidential elections and the huge demonstrations throughout Belarus, people demanding democratisation. They expressed the will of the people very, very, very clearly. We have understood that the basic principles in your preference for democratisation is... 21/06/2022 | 10:47:21 Mister President, The subject of our discussion today is the "Recent Security Challenges in Europe: the role of the Council of Europe". I think it is very important for us to try to remember and understand what is the basis of European security structure. Today after the post-Cold War period when we created the - let's say the new security architecture here - Helsinki Final Act, obviously the Paris Charter stipulates the basics. Obviously one of the basics is the respect of sovereignty... 28/04/2022 | 11:39:30 Mr President, first of all I would like to say thanks very much to Mr Aleksander POCIEJ: this is an excellent report. Furthermore, I say to you, Aleksander, it's also an important report, it's a very important report indeed. What we witness in Ukraine today is some serious violations of international law and against human rights. We all have been shocked. Absolutely. We all have been shocked. The Russian continued aggression and brutality, and in particular attacks on civilians, including... 27/04/2022 | 17:14:39 Mr President, thank you very much for also allowing me to say a few words on behalf of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy. Last month, as you very well know, we organised an extraordinary Parliamentary Assembly meeting here due to the events that happened in Europe on 24 February. The Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy prepared the Assembly Opinion on the question of the Russian Federation's exclusion from the Council of Europe due to that aggression. And that was, as... 27/04/2022 | 11:12:29 Madam President. Frank SCHWABE, thanks very much for your excellent report. We can fully share it together with us here now. Thanks very much, Mariia and Oleksii from Ukraine for the excellent presentation from your side, too. You gave us severe messages from your country. In Finland we are in full solidarity with you. In our living memory it is very very well your 1939, when after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Stalin attacked Finland. We were alone. Stalin calculated that Finland is divided... 15/03/2022 | 20:19:13 Thank you very much, Mister President. First, I want to thank the Rapporteur for preparing the report. Ms Ingjerd SCHOU, you made a very good, balanced, and consensus-driven report. All of us thank you very much for this one. We show strong solidarity for Ukraine and Ukrainians, for they are fighting not only for their sovereignty, national existence, but also for the universal values of democracy, human rights, and rule of law. This aggression is condemned by almost the whole world. Our... 15/03/2022 | 15:40:16 Mister President, 24 February 2020 changed the world. After the Cold-War-created security structure in Europe was in ruin, the security structure was based on a few basic principles. One of those is obviously sovereignty of all the states, territorial integrity, and obviously everyone's right to choose their own way of organising their security. Of course also the key basic principal point was common security. Common security means that you don't build up your security at the cost of others...