09/04/2019 | 16:43:01 What lies at the heart of Ms Petra De SUTTER's excellent report is the need to ensure convergence of human rights standards all over Europe. As the report correctly suggests, many institutional arrangements and other arrangements need to be made before the proposal for the establishment of a permanent European Union mechanism on democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental rights can be put into concrete form and take action. However, if those conditions are not met, prospects will be dim, and... 09/04/2019 | 10:38:46 Resolution 70/1, through which world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, is the bedrock on which all countries of the world should base their future development to safeguard their own viability and that of our planet. The universal and interlinked character of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the 169 targets should guide us all towards sustainable development until 2030. In an interdependent and globalised world, the 2030 Agenda is, by nature, universal and... 23/01/2019 | 15:45:58 We can all agree on the importance of multi-faceted and plural access to information regarding political life and democracy in our countries, especially during election time. Nonetheless, even if the obligations stemming from legislation on the mass media to ensure equal representation of all views during the pre-election periods are applied, we cannot claim that there is objectivity and pluralism if, throughout the rest of the year, information is subordinated to political and economic power... 22/01/2019 | 11:38:11 The report before us, and the draft resolution in particular, lays out important parameters that will undoubtedly provide the backbone to the revised Code of Good Practice in Referendums that the Venice Commission will prepare. I congratulate Dame Cheryl GILLAN on the extensive research she has undertaken and the very useful recommendations. There are important issues at stake that I should like to underline. Referendums are a form of direct democracy and should be used to complement...