25/06/2025 | 10:46:29 Dear President, ladies and gentlemen. Many thanks to the two rapporteurs for their reports, and also to the staff of the Secretariat. The people who have worked on this and the people sitting here in the Chamber have a great deal of experience. We have former sports ministers, we have athletes, we have former top athletes. I am looking at seat 347, Mr Joachim VOGT, a new member. He has won a Ski World Cup race, competed in the Olympics and so on. He was part of the Swiss training team at the... 31/01/2025 | 10:32:23 Yes, thank you very much, Mister Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen, There are not so many people in the hall on Friday mornings, but it has the advantage that people listen to each other. And I am very happy to hear certain words. But first, what is Long Covid? The term remains unclear. It describes a range of symptoms that persist after a Covid illness or only appear weeks, months or years later. These symptoms range from, as has been mentioned, chronic fatigue to breathing difficulties or so... 04/10/2024 | 11:04:49 Dear Mister Chairman, esteemed guests, I am talking about human rights, democracy and the rule of law. These are the issues in our country and in our Council. And I'm talking about how we dealt with Corona. Did we remember that in this Council when our countries took the harsh coronavirus measures? No, we in this Council failed to critically scrutinise the measures. Yes, the challenge at the beginning was a big one, especially at the very beginning. The uncertainty and fear of the virus... 26/06/2024 | 11:08:37 President and colleagues, We have now heard that sanctions are the panacea, and that they will resolve the situation. Let me tell you that they are not. Mr Paul GAVAN has just said that he wants more sanctions. We have heard it - more sanctions. We will hear it in many speeches - more sanctions. Germany wants more, and Belgium. Other countries will probably also be pilloried later. Are you really convinced that the sanctions against Russia will achieve anything? Are you really convinced? Are... 25/06/2024 | 11:27:52 Dear Mister chairman, Ladies and gentlemen, Yes, it is true that politics must take on board the views, expectations and concerns of young people if democracy is to function well. Young people bring dynamism and new ideas to politics. And yes, young people are sometimes less represented in national parliaments than middle-aged people. That young people are generally less involved in traditional politics than others is unfortunately no secret. However, I think that legal obstacles, prejudices... 25/01/2024 | 12:14:28 Dear Minister, As a quasi-neighbour, living only a few kilometers away from Liechtenstein, I dare to speak in German. The dialect is a bit difficult. it's similar, but nobody would understand it. My two questions. The first one: how was the decision yesterday on the resolution on Azerbaijan received in the Committee of Ministers, i.e. this general question about the Committee? Then a second question. You said very well that multilateralism makes us all stronger, and you also said very well... 24/01/2024 | 16:28:29 I can understand a lot of what is written here, what we are discussing here, what we have heard. But I will focus on the integrity of the countries that are part of the OECD and the G20. They want large international companies to be taxed at a rate of at least 15% in future. This was pushed by the G20. It is being implemented to the letter by the EU member states. Such a regime was also introduced in Switzerland on 1 January. This was neither a government nor a parliamentary decision, but a... 22/06/2023 | 16:46:12 Esteemed Vice-President, Ladies and gentlemen, Esteemed colleagues, I have a lot to do with athletes professionally. I have been doing this all my life. It is part of my professional path. Yesterday and today I had phone conversations with athletes. One of them told me in no uncertain terms: as a gold medalist at the Olympics, I want to win against the best, against the best in the world. I want to be the best of all in the world. The best of all, in fact the best of all honest athletes in... 12/04/2019 | 12:40:46 Dear colleagues, €59 million in 2019 – never before has so much funding been allocated to action in sport under Erasmus Plus. What a commitment from the taxpayers of the 34 countries in the programme. That leads me to another very important commitment of dozens of countries: the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, which is known as the Macolin Convention. It has been ratified by four States and signed by 31 other States. On 1 February 2019, it was even...