26/01/2023 | 20:07:39 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr President, I am very happy to see this Assembly take up the issue of the sit-down and ongoing blockade of the so-called Lachin Corridor, which provides the only, and I stress the only, road connection between the region of Nagorno-Karabach and Armenia. The reason for the allegedly civilian and spontaneous demonstration in question, which has by now lasted well over a month, is the supposed damage caused to the local environment through the... 26/01/2023 | 13:00:13 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr President, We have, in this important debate, heard many excellent statements, including that of our Rapporteur Mr Cottier, on the horrible, almost indescribable war crimes perpetrated by Russian forces against an innocent and peace-loving population, the Ukrainians. Mass executions and torture of civilians and captured soldiers alike; millions of Ukrainians displaced , often abroad; forced deportations to Russia, including of children... 28/04/2022 | 12:23:03 Thank you, Mr President. This is Assembly is right in holding a debate at this present session already, as consequences are flowing from Russia's heinous and unlawful attack on Ukraine. This being said, we know full well that the conflict is still far from over. We may, in fact, at this stage, be far from the beginning of the end. We may instead, more realistically, be at the end of the beginning, to quote Mr Winston Churchill. The first consequence I wish to mention is the enormous suffering... 15/03/2022 | 20:00:00 Madam President, As we gathered in this chamber less than two months ago, we were still living in what is known as a post-cold war era. That era started in the early 1990s and witnessed the spread of democracy in previously unfree nations, the tempering of tensions in Europe generally. There was a time when, as the saying has it, "hope and history rhymed." To be sure, there were setbacks, as some states broke animosity - but there were also, on the whole, successful international efforts to... 27/01/2022 | 13:02:03 Thank you, Mr President. It's almost to the month 30 years ago, 25 December 1991, that the Soviet Union flag was lowered over the Kremlin in Moscow and replaced with a flag of a reborn Russia. Was that momentous event, along with others such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the signal of the coming of a new Europe? This would be a Europe where nations and peoples would be able to freely meet and create a new reality of pan-European friendship, co-operation and trust. A Europe where peace, not... 25/01/2022 | 19:37:19 Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2 Mr (Madam) President, Mrs Engblom’s excellent report on “The Role of Media in Times of Crisis,” could not have been presented to this Assembly at a more fitting moment than the present - however tragic and dramatic that moment is - as we find ourselves in the midst of not one, but two extremely serious crises at the same time! On the one hand there is the current pandemic. And on the other, the sudden danger posed to our entire European... 24/01/2022 | 19:22:50 Madam President, In this debate, we are asked to take a stand on a report entitled the European Union Pact on Migration and Asylum, presented by our esteemed colleague Mr Oleksii GONCHARENKO. It is an interesting account and the rapporteur is to be commended, however, the report also raises a number of questions. Firstly, the so-called "Pact" is not written for the Council of Europe and its 47 member States. It is written for the EU and its 27 member states, all of which are also members of... 30/09/2021 | 16:18:55 All right. Thank you, Mister President. The tragic events recently played out before us in Belarus is indeed something unheard of. An ageing dictator steeped in old-times Soviet thinking and in a position of absolute power for almost three decades unlawfully forced a foreign airliner to divert on to Belarus territory, did this so that he could capture a brave passenger on board and put him in prison simply for using the fundamental right of speaking up against a barbaric regime. The same fate... 28/09/2021 | 19:48:54 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr President, Only a few weeks ago, in my home country Sweden, an immigrant mother was convicted in court after having lured her daughter back to their native country in the Middle East, on the pretense of spending summer holidays together. Once there, however, the daughter was imprisoned in a basement, and beaten, tortured and threatened if she didn’t marry a man she had never seen. It was only by managing to send text messages to her... 22/04/2021 | 13:04:48 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr President, At our last session in January of this year, we debated this very same issue as a ‘Current Affairs debate’. Today, however, we do so under the heading ‘Urgent debate’. And justly so, for the matter has truly become urgent. In January we were relieved that the brave Mr. Navalny had miraculously recovered from the novichok assassination attempt carried out against him in Siberia some time earlier. And perhaps, some of us were...