08/04/2025 | 10:39:59 President, colleagues, The election in Moldova is fresh in our minds. Foreign interference was significant. We must be vigilant in the upcoming parliamentary election. In the draft resolution our rapporteur proposed developing a broad-based definition of foreign interference. This is important. We all have a notion of what foreign interference is, but a definition we all agree on would make it easier to counter this threat. A clear distinction between foreign interference and foreign... 30/01/2025 | 11:36:10 Thank you, Madam President. I would like to start with recalling our resolution of last January, "A Democratic Future for Belarus", in which we agreed to allow regular participation of a representative delegation of the Belarusian democratic forces in the work of our Parliamentary Assembly. Today, a year later, we have the first ever Belarusian delegation present in the hemicycle and included in our work. Words matter, Madam President, but they matter more when they are followed up by action... 28/01/2025 | 11:57:00 Then it's okay. Yeah, OK, thank you. Thank you, Madam President, I congratulate Ms Dora BAKOYANNIS on this important and well-written report. Ms Dora BAKOYANNIS explains how the rules-based international order with binding conventions is under pressure by the rise of autocratic regimes with a growing preference for bilateral and nationalistic solutions. More and more we see a world governed by the rule of force and less by the rule of law. Russia and its illegal war of aggression on Ukraine... 27/06/2024 | 10:22:38 President and colleagues, One month ago, the Standing Committee met in Vilnius. It was soon after the law on foreign agents had been passed, soon after thousands of Georgians had taken to the streets demonstrating against the law. Our current affairs debate in Vilnius was timely, our debate today is urgent. The Georgian democracy is backsliding towards an illiberal democracy and the country’s democratic forces are under heavy pressure. The Council of Europe must send a strong message to the... 24/06/2024 | 17:25:15 Yes. There it is, yeah. I will speak against, because I have to remember all of us the history of this Assembly and the problems, the history of problems with conflicts of interests, personally, specifically, in the monitoring procedure. And why am I against? I disagree with the Amendment and I think it's also a misunderstanding, because the proposal does not disqualify any parliamentarian who is a member of a friendship group from being a monitoring rapporteur. The purpose of the proposal is... 24/06/2024 | 17:18:06 Thank you, Madam chair. Thank you, good colleagues, also for your comments. I just want to finish what I just needed to say in my first speech: the rules of procedure are not very reader-friendly. The Committee proposed that thorough editorial work is being undertaken to simplify our rules while ensuring coherence. I would like to give some comments to our colleagues. First, I would like to say that this is the oldest Organisation dealing with democracy, principles of state, and taking care... 24/06/2024 | 16:50:35 Thank you, Madam Chair and Madam President, and colleagues. It is important to regularly reflect upon how to improve, to clarify, simplify or modify our rules to ensure the best possible functioning of our Assembly. The draft Resolution before us is the result of thorough discussions in the Committee. I'm grateful to my colleagues for the fruitful discussion which has enabled us to agree on all the points included in the draft Resolution. The draft Resolution contains proposals regarding the... 17/04/2024 | 20:30:43 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) President, I take the floor with a heavy heart. Alexei Navalny has been on our agenda numerous times since the poisoning in 2020. Vladimir Kara-Murza will return on our agenda. Until he is released. I cannot bear to think about him suffering the same fate as Mr Navalny. The news of Mr Navalny’s death pained me. That people lose their lives because they are opposed to the political leadership in my neighboring country is heart wrenching. It... 16/04/2024 | 17:56:16 Dear President, The Group of the European People's Party would like to start by thanking Ms Dora BAKOYANNIS for her report and draft opinion. We know that she and her team have been working hard and diligently. Thanks to her efforts, we can have a well-founded debate here today. To many in this room, this it is a difficult and sensitive question. So also, for members of the EPP group. We do not have a unified position on this question. I therefore welcome the debate and look forward to... 24/01/2024 | 17:45:33 Thank you, President, Thank you Mr Mogens JENSEN for the speedy work on this very important report. Challenges of credentials on substantive grounds are few and far between. You can see this from the list in the opinion for which I am rapporteur. Dear colleagues, This rapporteurship is a task I did not take lightly. It is a task that our Committee did not take lightly. The consideration of the report of Mr Mogens JENSEN and the Monitoring Committee is a task our Assembly should not take...