24/06/2019 | 23:02:04 Thank you very much indeed. What’s quarante-sept in English, sorry? (speaking off mic) Forty-seven. Thank you very much indeed. Thanks, Nigel. I hadn’t got my headphones on, deepest apology to colleagues. Where we’ve got “Taking into consideration the Committee of Ministers’ held a decision in,“ place the following words: “the Assembly decides to amend Rule 11.3 of its Rules of Procedure by adding at the end of the first sentence the following words: 'in the exceptional circumstances... 24/06/2019 | 22:41:48 Thank you very much indeed, Madam President. It is at the end of this paragraph, the new paragraph, which is just next to it. We'd like to put in "welcome" - in reply to the Committee members to the Assembly - would "welcome any country’s participation in these votes mentioned that has fully fulfilled its financial obligations towards the organisation" - otherwise us, because at the moment, we don’t have that. And there is no obligation unless we get the Council of Ministers to be able to... 24/06/2019 | 22:01:07 Thank you very much, Madam President. I will have to read this - this is what we want to add at the end of the paragraph: "The assembly notes, however, with growing concern the lack of cooperation with the commission on the honouring and the obligations and commitments by Member States to the Council of Europe, i.e. the Monitoring Committee, by certain Member States." We feel this would actually polarise some of the problems we have faced where people have ignored what we've said, have... 24/06/2019 | 19:44:03 Madam President, thank you very much indeed. I'd like to slightly follow-on from my colleague Nigel Evans. Nobody here doesn't think the Russians should come back. But the reason that we have had this problem in the first place is because the Russians didn't respect what we stand for. Now, the Russian delegation was part of our group. They were part of the EC group. They left the EC group and they left this place. And I will tell you, colleagues, all of you, that they did what they wanted to... 24/06/2019 | 11:53:46 Thank you Madam President, I just wish to bring colleagues aware of this. On behalf of the European Conservatives, we requested the Assembly to hold a debate under the urgent procedure about the Russian non-payment of its legal obligation contributions to the Council of Europe for the years 2017 and 2018. In those years, the Russian Federation violated Article 38 of the Statute by paying its contributions only partly, and putting the Council of Europe, in great financial difficulty. The two... 08/04/2019 | 12:21:13 In case anybody does not know, we have two small crises here at the Council of Europe: one over the finances, and one over a former partner. I would like to correct a few misconceptions, if I may. First of all, the Russian Federation has not been under sanctions from this place for many years. Any sanction imposed on a delegation by the Assembly under Rule 10 automatically expires on the opening of the first ordinary session of every year. Each January, every delegation gets a new chance to... 21/01/2019 | 17:56:19 I have listened with great interest to the debate and I have great esteem for my colleagues who observed the presidential elections in Georgia and Armenia. They did a good job and their presentations to the plenary session were extremely good. I am delighted that many colleagues took the opportunity in the debate to discuss some of the things that matter to their countries and to other countries. Election monitoring is the lifeblood of the Organisation in many ways, so we have to be seen to... 21/01/2019 | 12:10:37 First, Madam President, may I congratulate you on your re-election as the President of the Council of Europe, which is greatly deserved? On a more sober note, may I say how sorry we all are for the terrible terrorist attack in Strasbourg and the awful attack on the Mayor of Gdansk? I do not think that any of us are not aware of the threats that we face in Europe and as parliamentarians in our countries. It is a sad indictment and a great shame that Europe is a less safe place that it has been...