25/06/2026 | 17:20:39 Thank you very much, dear Chair. Please don't forget that we still need to vote for Mr Constantinos EFSTATHIOU's resolution and report. Before I say a few words on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, as the Committee Chair, I have two points on a more personal note. First, I know quite well what the so-called transnational repression means. I have been targeted by a Russian-triggered Interpol Red Notice since 2010 for an absurd charge of piracy. So I'm very happy that a... 24/06/2026 | 17:30:23 Thank you, Chair. Before I speak about the report, there is one thing that I think must be said every time, or should be said, when a European politician discusses Georgia, and it's this: Elene KHOSHTARIA and all other political prisoners of the Georgian regime must be released immediately. [Applause] Their release must be a precondition for any dialogue, any co-operation, any European engagement with Georgia. But today we are discussing the functioning of democratic institutions in Georgia... 24/06/2026 | 17:08:54 Thank you, Chair. I speak on behalf of the Committee. First, I would like to thank the Rapporteur, Mr Christophe LACROIX, for his very good and very tough work. It's a difficult portfolio, as we just heard. I also would like to thank the former Rapporteur, Ms Hannah BARDELL from the UK, for her contribution. The Committee has worked on Azerbaijan for a while. For context, already in 2023, we held a joint hearing with the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member... 23/06/2026 | 10:24:15 Secretary General, My question regards Georgia, our member state, even if absent from this room for two years now. Georgia has not met numerous demands by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, by the Venice Commission, by the Court, to repeal, among others, the law on transparency of foreign influence, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, the law on protecting family values and minors, the law on administrative offences. And the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe... 22/04/2026 | 18:29:10 Thank you, Madam President. My speech is boring because I represent the Legal Committee and I can't really say what I would like to say on this topic. But nonetheless, I would like to congratulate the rapporteur, Ms Gala VELDHOEN, on her report and remind the report is titled “Towards the universal abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances”. We talked today mostly about Israel, but this report is much more than that. It was unanimously adopted by the Committee on Legal Affairs and... 20/04/2026 | 12:12:08 Thank you, Madam President. I will try to keep it short since we're talking about progress and the progress report, four points on things that we have and have not made progress on. First, probably the most important issue this body is working on is the International Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. The Council of Europe signed the treaty with Ukraine last June. There were 33 countries who were in the core group drafting it. By now, only 19 countries have joined. I mean... 26/01/2026 | 16:26:54 Thank you, Madam President. 'Safeguarding the international system of justice'. Of course, the topic stems from the presumption that this system still exists. And I do the same; I think that it partially does. But the system of international justice, of course, is not just an abstract legal construct. It's a system that depends – besides conventions and legal texts – on political courage, institutional integrity and moral clarity. I'm glad to hear from the previous speakers that I'm not alone... 02/10/2025 | 10:16:12 Thank you, Mister President. Dear colleagues, Thank you, Mr Iulian BULAI, for bringing up this topic. It's obviously important for all of us. You know, we from the Baltic States have been a little bit puzzled about how Europe is struggling with the Russian threat, as if it's something new. It's nothing new. It has been around for a very long time. Maybe we are just a little bit more aware of it now. So what should we do about it? My father had a very simple and clear teaching about it. He... 01/10/2025 | 19:26:25 Mister President, thank you very much. Thank you, everyone, for participating. I will be very short. As we heard, a lot of what was said today was, in essence, about trust. Can we trust starting this dialogue with the Russian democratic forces? Some of us don't, some of us do. For the doubters, I sometimes bring this example, talking about this. Imagine that you are in London in 1943, and there are Brits and French and Poles, maybe Americans, and they're creating an organisation, and they're... 01/10/2025 | 18:40:06 Dear President, Dear colleagues, Two and a half years ago, in March 2022, this Assembly took one of the most important decisions in its modern history. In the face of brutal, full-scale aggression - Russia's aggression against Ukraine - we acted quickly, with unity and with determination. We expelled the Russian Federation from our organisation, thus making it clear that the Council of Europe cannot harbour an aggressor state. A state basically hijacked by a gang of criminals. The state that...