29/01/2026 | 19:54:06 Thank you, Madam President. It falls to me now to make a few valedictory remarks. I want at the outset to thank our professional colleague from the Monitoring Committee Secretariat, Ms Agnieszka NACHILO, for her incisive intellect and her academic prowess that she brought to bear professionally on our work. I want to thank my colleague Ms Sibel ARSLAN, who was an excellent co-rapporteur. The North Macedonian delegation who showed us nothing but courtesy and painstaking efforts to give us... 29/01/2026 | 19:12:50 In terms of preventing and controlling corruption, the authorities have implemented numerous measures to fulfil the recommendations of the Group of States Against Corruption. Nevertheless, corruption remains widespread throughout the public sector, suggesting that the measures taken so far have not been effective. The State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption is doing its utmost to investigate corruption and report on cases of conflict of interest, but it still lacks the technical... 28/01/2026 | 11:17:40 Thank you (off mic), President, As I rise to speak, as I rise to speak on this excellent report, I am proud to have been involved in youth participation projects, bringing youth organisations and individuals from Ireland here to the Hemicycle in Strasbourg and to a subsequent youth conference in Rome. The late, great Baroness Doreen E. Massey from the UK and Ms Elena Bonetti from Italy were centrally involved then too. We need a well-informed, motivated, idealistic, active youth as a bulwark... 27/01/2026 | 18:22:31 Thank you, President. We must, at the start, we must maintain strong diplomatic efforts to achieve peace and an immediate ceasefire. And those diplomatic efforts should include the leadership of the Council of Europe, obviously. The diplomatic efforts must be paralleled by strict enforcement of the targeted sanctions already in place. We should constantly review the sanctions and increase and improve the sanctions. And we will have to make personal sacrifices where necessary to achieve that... 24/06/2025 | 17:21:18 Thank you, President. This crucial debate arises from Resolution 2598 of 2025 dealing with the need to ensure accountability and avoid impunity for Russia on foot of its illegal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine. This Resolution welcomes the commitment by the core group of participants involving over 40 countries in the Lviv Statement of 9 May 2025, expressing political support for the draft legal texts establishing the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine within the... 10/04/2025 | 15:43:28 Thank you, President. I am honoured to speak on behalf of the Group of the European People's Party. At the outset, may I again stress our abhorrence of 7 October 2023 Hamas atrocities. We are equally abhorrent of the completely disproportionate and obscene Israeli response. We have had 18 months of genocide, physical destruction of schools, hospitals and universities and thousands and thousands of homes raised to the ground. The greatest victims are women and children. This is confirmed by... 28/01/2025 | 17:34:34 Could I begin, Mister President, by congratulating my colleague Fiona on that fine address? Might I, first of all, welcome the report and again say that its focus is on the humanitarian situation, with particular reference to women and children. Ireland welcomes the agreement and the ceasefire, as do all right-thinking people here. We are glad that food entered Gaza on Sunday, 19 January after months of blocking. We cannot escape the reality – and the tragic reality – that 43 000 lives were... 01/10/2024 | 19:55:50 Thank you, President. It is my privilege on behalf of the Group of the European People's Party (EPP) to welcome the report as it both pertains to the internal situation in Iran and the external situation in Europe of exiled Iranians. And in my short few remarks, I propose to address both questions. I congratulate both Max and Mariia, and there is a slight generational divide between myself and Max, but I think he has proposed the report very well. Now, since the change of leadership in Iran... 01/10/2024 | 19:20:34 Thank you, President. At the outset, could I just briefly congratulate Ms Saskia KLUIT on her report and on her fine exposition of it? May I remind us all that we are primarily a human rights organisation, where the rule of law, democracy and human rights are sacrosanct. We should suspend geopolitical and ideological divides, and we should unite around those core principles and values on this question. We should recognise that in Gaza, we've had an effective genocide with the death of 40 000... 01/10/2024 | 18:31:45 Freedom House has designated Azerbaijan as one of the most authoritarian states. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)'s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) have grave reservations about the recent elections establishing firmly a family monarchy. Arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions, severe beatings and torture are a common feature. Three hundred and nineteen individuals are in prison on political charges. At the heart of all of this is...