25/01/2021 | 12:25:02 Thank you, Mr President. 10 minutes max it will be. Can I first of all thank you for your speech to start with? You mentioned a very important thing. You mentioned honesty. That is the watchword not only for all politicians but for all democracies, and that is something we should all learn we've got a lot to do. The title of this report suggests progress has been made since January last year. I'm not entirely sure about that. Not because of anything we've done, it's just because the situation... 20/11/2020 | 14:54:09 Thank you, Mister President. This has been fascinating just listening to my colleagues. The first thing I would like to say is that anybody who's a parliamentarian would like to come to Strasbourg in January. One of the biggest problems we will face is that at the moment all British MPs are banned from travelling, not by the government, but by the speaker of the House of Commons. Therefore, at this precise moment it would be impossible for us to come. We would like to be there, but we can't... 20/11/2020 | 12:11:14 Good morning! And can I just say your lost intervention's right: if you can't say it in three minutes, don't say it. But the point I want to make is this: Mr Jacques MAIRE put a very clear message across to us. These pandemics will continue to happen. Crises will continue to happen. They have always happened and they will happen again. The Athens Declaration sets out in many ways what we have to do in a crisis. Every country in Europe in some way, some more than others, we have heard from... 27/01/2020 | 12:59:09 Mr President, thank you very much indeed. Mr Hendrik DAEMS, it's great to see you there and congratulations, also to Lord David BLENCATHRA, who made a very good speech indeed. Mister President, we were talking, if you remember, about what you were going to do for the next two years. And one think I said is: what is the role of the Council of Europe? And the reason I said that is because every single thing we do, other than the Court of Human Rights, are done by other organisations. Democracy... 03/10/2019 | 12:18:50 Well colleagues, thank you very much indeed. It was quite surreal, just when you were speaking, Madame President, to see Sir Winston CHURCHILL, standing then, and you paraphrased what he said, because he did speak rather long-windedly. And, basically what he said is, after a generation of terrible wars, we had a chance to set ourselves above that, and to bring Europe, which had been at war for a thousand years, together. And that's what this place is about. This is — you've already heard from... 27/06/2019 | 17:17:15 Madam President, thank you very much indeed. This is a very important debate. The most important thing that any parliamentarian can do is protect the citizens of their country. Where there are crimes perpetrated, as members of parliament, we must always try to get to the bottom of what has happened. I would like to thank Mr ZINGERIS. This is not an easy report and it is a crucial report because, in shedding light on the murder of Boris NEMTSOV, we need to know what has happened. He was a... 25/06/2019 | 10:42:20 Very much indeed, Mr O'REILLY. No backstops tonight, today, I can tell you. Can I also thank Petra de Sutter. We've worked together for quite a long time now, Petra and I. I would tempt you to accept our thanks, if I may. And in fact, we were sparring even this morning, so I'm very grateful for everything you've done. Yesterday, I think we had a very large missed opportunity here. We did not celebrate the 70th anniversary here. The agenda was changed at the last moment by the President –no... 24/06/2019 | 23:44:48 Thank you very much. In order to... We'd like to revise the end of paragraph 8: "In order to enjoy these equal rights, equal obligations, especially financial ones, must be fulfilled first". One of the reasons we're here tonight, and doing this, is that actually it is our financial obligation. And therefore we can't just ignore any country who does this. So, therefore, surely it should be right, that you pay up before you get absolute rights and accesses to this place. And that, unfortunately... 24/06/2019 | 23:23:24 Thank you. Now, I would generally say to the rapporteur, I do understand the concerns. But we need these various issues actually talked about. I hope she will bare with me, and colleagues as well. Again, where a member or members, whose credentials are under consideration, cannot stand for the office of President. I would say this would seem fairly obvious, but there are actually no rules to say that if somebody hasn't got their credentials, they can't actually stand for President of the... 24/06/2019 | 23:17:30 Thank you, Madam President. This is, again, the same thing. But under the sanctions of the United States of America. The United States of America has an extremely strict policy on sanctions, as we well know. In fact, Iran has had a lot more piled on it today. Now, therefore, this is a very difficult one, because if you have people that want to go to the United States, they will ban them. Now that can be any of us. If the Americans have a reason for not allowing a parliamentarian in, they ban...