24/06/2026 | 18:01:52 Dear Mr President, First of all, congratulations to the Vice President in this Assembly. Dear colleagues, I think we speak about the biggest disappointment in this Organisation. I would like to thank the Rapporteurs, Ms Sabina ĆUDIĆ, and I would like to thank Ms Edite ESTRELA, for their commitment, for their work. And I know it from Ms Edite ESTRELA how much you would like to see Georgia acting in line with the values and rules of this Organisation. And what are you really doing for this? And... 24/06/2026 | 16:49:04 Dear Mister President, Dear colleagues, And dear Mr Oleksii GONCHARENKO, Again we all, maybe not all, but most of us, we want to stop Russia's aggression, Russia's war towards Ukraine. That's what we want together. But you misunderstand this organisation and that doesn't mean you put everything else in all the other states into perspective. We have something to do and we have to do our job. And I looked this morning, into the definition and the characteristics of dictatorship. I looked into... 23/06/2026 | 11:20:39 Madam President, Dear colleagues, That we see a deterioration of human rights, of democracy and rule of law in Türkiye, this is nothing new, but what we see now is a very dramatic development in the last months and years. And for sure those ones who underline the geopolitical role of Türkiye are right and we welcome this geopolitical role and we should work together. But this organisation is about the situation in Türkiye. It's about democracy, the rule of law and the human rights situation... 23/04/2026 | 11:19:58 Madam President, Dear colleagues, Thank you very much for this very important exchange of views. I would like to thank all the Ukrainian colleagues for always opening your heart in this debate. I know it is not easy to describe your personal situation. I would like to ask, for sure, Mr Eerik-Niiles KROSS was mentioned, Mr Iulian BULAI and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe for the initiative for this debate. But, we want to show – and I think it was seen through the speakers... 23/04/2026 | 10:08:09 Thank you very much, and good morning, Ms President, Distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, We meet today in an Assembly that represents Europe‘s commitment to law and human rights. These principles were built after the worst moments in our history. Today, they are under serious pressure again. This is not just another debate. It is a test. We must decide whether international law still protects the vulnerable, or whether it fails when faced with open aggression. Think about the... 22/04/2026 | 12:00:44 Mister President, I'm sorry to say that this is for sure unfortunately not the aim of the amendment. The aim of the amendment is to undermine the meaning of the legislation in Spain. The "Yes Means Yes" legislation is a leading example for all of Europe. We have to be thankful to the government and to the parliament of Spain for this legislation. What we should really not do – and I really ask each and every one, even those who have a very prominent role in this Parliamentary Assembly of the... 27/01/2026 | 12:47:52 Madam President Bayer, Madam President Sandu, distinguished guests. The Holocaust was organised on German soil and by Germans. This fills me with great shame. I'm therefore grateful that I may speak here, albeit on behalf of my parliamentary group, but nonetheless as a German. It fills me with great shame that antisemitism, antigypsyism, discrimination against LGBTIQ, discrimination against people with disabilities, racism and general misanthropy, while never truly gone, are now resurfacing... 26/01/2026 | 11:30:42 Mister President, if I may, so Mister Acting President, Mister now former President, I have to say I don't know how to put two years into one minute. It's a little bit difficult. But for sure, colleagues all, you know, and you see several examples of how challenging the times are, undoubtedly. And the Council of Europe was usually founded not to go through such challenging times. This was the idea to prevent it, at the end. But now we are there. And when we are there, we need really someone... 02/10/2025 | 16:25:00 Dear Mister President, Dear co-rapporteurs, Dear colleagues, The developments in Georgia are most regrettable. Why? Because it was a 180 degree turn from a very good path to the opposite. And it's not just the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe which is speaking about it. If you look at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, they implemented the Vienna (Human Dimension) Mechanism on the Situation in Georgia. If you look into the Democracy Index 2024 of The... 30/09/2025 | 15:41:41 Dear Mr President, Dear Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly, Dear Ms Despina CHATZIVASSILIOU, congratulations for this, let's say, very good result. We have a lot of authoritarian leaders, maybe in the Council of Europe, who want to have such results, so congratulations for this. What we know is that, besides the question of what we do, it is important how we do it, and organising is not everything, but it's a lot, and you did it perfectly. And I want to say that it is important...