26/04/2022 | 11:18:54 Dear President, and thank you, Mr Titus CORLĂŢEAN, for your very good report. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, but a member of the Council of Europe and of course for us it is important that we can uphold the values that we share here in this house and in our institution. I was a little bit afraid that because the majority of member states is now a member of the European Union in the Council of Europe, there was a sort of danger that we would adhere to the European Union and... 24/01/2022 | 15:48:26 Thank you Mr President, and also congratulations for your election and good success for the coming two years. As you know, we've been in Bulgaria for the third time this year. The reason was that during the two previous elections parties were not able to form a government. Now, after the elections, we were observing on November 14 that the government was formed. We had a new party that won the elections. We Continue the Change with 25.67%. The former ruling party, GERB-SDS, they came in... 27/09/2021 | 12:20:21 Thank you very much, Madame Chair. These were the second elections in Bulgaria that took place, because in April Bulgaria was not able to form a government. The elections were held in a competitive and fundamental freedoms were generally respected. The campaign environment was dominated by mutual accusations of corruption between the former ruling party and the provisional government, as well as by efforts by law enforcement to curb vote buying. The elections were conducted under the legal... 21/06/2021 | 12:13:41 Sorry I forgot to press the right button. I want to report to you, Ms Vice-President, dear colleagues, about our mission in Bulgaria. We found that the elections were held in in a proper manner. They were well organised. Of course we had this pandemic also in Bulgaria which made a bit difficult to organise it as normal. A limited number of polling stations were opening late. We had some overcrowding in polling stations but this was mainly due to the pandemic situation and keeping of the... 30/01/2020 | 16:07:20 Yes, thank you, Mister Chair. Unfortunately the Arab Spring that began ended in an Arab winter. Not only in Libya we have a complete war zone, also in Egypt we have a military dictatorship, we have in Syria still Hafez al-Assad in power. We didn't see any democratic evolvement that we hoped for when the Arab Spring was starting. What concerns Libya we have to say that member states of the Council of Europe have a responsibility for the situation as it is today. I'm not an advocate of Gaddafi... 30/01/2020 | 11:22:38 Thank you, Mr Chair. Thank you to the rapporteur Ms Thorhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR for her report. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe welcomes the report about the political prisoners and especially the resolution what Azerbeidjan should do to fufil its obligations as member state of the Council of Europe. The European Court of Human rights has issued a very large number of judgments finding violations of the Convention arising from arbitrary arrests and detention of opposition... 03/10/2019 | 19:53:45 Yes, thank you, Mrs Chair. I want first to thank to the rapporteurs for their report and also for letting us know how the situation is in Moldova and indeed it's a serious situation we are facing there, which is of great concern and should be of great concern to the Council of Europe. We are facing, or as the Council of Europe, we are responsible for the rule of law, for democracy and Human Rights. And Moldova is a small country; is a new country and is a poor country, of course, as well. And... 24/01/2019 | 17:16:33 One of the most useful tools of our Parliamentary Assembly is the Monitoring Committee, and we thank the rapporteur, Sir Roger GALE, for this report. The work of the Monitoring Committee and its rapporteurs should be neutral and non-biased and should always have the wellbeing of the people in our countries in mind, as well as respect for democracy, human rights and rule of law. Of course we should and must have it in mind that our Council of Europe consists of different countries. Each and...