26/01/2022 | 15:55:30 Thank you Mister President. I disagree with the opinions that have been put forward in the past two presentations. I want to quickly explain why. In 2019, my group was strongly opposed to the unconditional, and I stress that, to the unconditional return of the Russian Federation. The reason why, was nothing had been done about the previous resolutions of the Council and the respect that should be shown to this Assembly. We objected, too, to the demands that have been put forward by the... 25/01/2022 | 10:10:17 Thank you very much Mr President. I don't know where to begin with this report. This report is atrocious. I do not congratulate the rapporteur. He presents opinions as if they were fact. I have great difficulty with that, particularly in the relationship to the United Kingdom. So I shall not be voting for this report. I shall not be voting for this report because I am not anti-gay. I shall not be voting for this report because I am pro-gay. I've spent a lot of my political career in the... 24/01/2022 | 18:43:30 Thank you, Mr President. I think this issue is so important that it cannot be underestimated and what we have just heard from the commissioner was a very good example of that. Migration and asylum can come from a huge number of places. We have already heard that Afghanistan is playing a big role, that Belarus is also playing a big role. But I have pointed out, on a number of occasions in this Assembly, that there is one other source that we need to watch with great care. And that is Africa... 30/09/2021 | 10:01:01 Thank you, Madame President. We can spend as long as we like talking about the major political issues that the crisis in Afghanistan has generated. We can spend as long as we like analysing the threats of terrorism and all of that, and all of that can come to some good I am sure. But if we want to really understand the humanitarian crisis that is faced by the people of Afghanistan, let me give you a practical example of how a group of people have been affected. The rapporteur has already... 29/09/2021 | 17:07:01 Ladies and gentlemen, can you take your seats for the next session, please. Thank you. We now have the joint debate on three reports on the theme of environment and climate change. The first (this is not necessarily in the order in which they would appear), the first is titled “Combatting inequalities in the right to a safe, healthy and clean environment” (Document 15349), for which the rapporteur is Ms Edite ESTRELA from the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination. The second is titled... 29/09/2021 | 11:04:55 Thank you very much, Mister President. I want to raise a number of concerns on the participatory democracy paper. The rapporteur I think quite correctly identifies a number of problems, but these are not wholly associated with climate change. For example, one of the problems he raises is how do we engage in politics with young people? How do we get them to participate in politics? How do we take their ideas and develop those ideas into policy? The solution that the paper comes up with is... 28/09/2021 | 17:58:16 Thank you very much, Mr President. I have to say to the rapporteur that I have several concerns about this report. Before coming to speak here, I took the view of a number of female colleagues about the issue, and many of the things that are being proposed for women, they were concerned about – because what we need to do is to avoid the suggestion that women cannot compete with men in their own right – of course, they can and I encourage them to do that. An example of that, which is not being... 28/09/2021 | 11:36:53 Thank you very much, Madam President. I think what we have just heard shows that we need to read these reports with a great deal of care. There is a tendency in this Council to see things from a left-of-centre perspective. I disagree with that perspective. The rapporteur was right. This is a question of political choice. I was surprised, for example, at the last meeting that we had, to see a paper that, I believe, set out programme of nationalisation of so much of European industry. I do not... 27/09/2021 | 16:41:40 When I last spoke about this issue in a debate here, I said that I have friends on both sides of the debate. I have friends who are Armenian, friends who are Azeri, and I am glad that I do. And I would like to make sure that we can still have those friends on both sides. But this is not a time for us to look back into detailed recriminations, into detailed examination of what has happened in the the area in conflict. It is a time for us to look to the future, to look to make sure that... 27/09/2021 | 16:26:06 Thank you. Before I call the vote, may I remind the Assembly that the effect of Ms Mariia MEZENTSEVAM's objection would be to refer the list of candidates from Ukraine nominated for election to be judges back to the Committee on the election of judges to the European Court of Human Rights. Those who wish to support this objection should vote "yes", those who do not support the objection and agree to the rejection of the list of candidates should vote "no". A simple majority will decide this...