09/04/2019 | 16:06:27 On behalf of the Group of the European People’s Party, I thank Ms Petra De SUTTER for this report. The European Union’s gradual establishment of agencies or mechanisms to deal with human rights and the rule of law has been raised on many occasions during my time in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I particularly remember the reluctance expressed in the Assembly about the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. At a time when the Council of Europe is experiencing an... 23/01/2019 | 17:10:09 The rapporteur’s outstanding report provides a comprehensive landscape of this essential tool – the Internet – but it also prompts us to look at the huge challenges we will face as citizens and as lawmakers. Among the issues addressed in the report, the question of freedom is fundamental. It includes freedom of access and of expression, but that freedom should not lead to excess. Many recent studies, especially of young people, have demonstrated that cyber-violence and cyber-harassment... 22/01/2019 | 10:33:30 The debate we are holding today is particularly relevant and timely. The referendum on a citizens’ initiative is one of the demands of the gilets jaunes movement in France. Everywhere in Europe, parties that are basically populists are demanding referendums on different subjects. It is true that, by permitting the direct participation of citizens, a referendum is a tool for consolidating democracy. In some federal States such as the United States or Switzerland, it is used regularly on...