01/10/2019 | 10:20:01 Thank you Madam President. I'm very happy to speak in favour of this very timely and important report on improving the protection of whistle-blowers. Whistle-blowers play an essential role in any open and transparent democracy. Whistle-blowing is acknowledged as one of the most effective ways to stop wrongdoing. Wrongdoing which ultimately stems from greed, a sense of entitlement and a mentality of superiority and belief that self-interest trumps all else. Both these behaviours and attitudes... 26/06/2019 | 11:29:50 Mental health historically has been covered in a shroud of darkness because of the stigma attached to it. People who suffered from mental health have been marginalised, shunned and demonised throughout history. Sent away, locked up in institutions, never to see the light of day. Families do not dare to speak due to the huge source of embarrassment. While undoubtedly over the last decade or so much better awareness of the challenges of mental health and how it can affect anyone of us at... 25/06/2019 | 16:39:25 I will start off by complimenting both Rapporteurs on the report. Obviously, both reports are very independent, given that violence against women is a form of gender-based discrimination and a manifestation of deeply rooted inequality between men and women. The horrendous figures which indicate that one in three women in the EU report being a victim of gender-based violence at least once since the age of 15. This potentially could be any of our sisters, mothers, aunts, nieces, people who we... 09/04/2019 | 10:35:14 On behalf of ALDE, I thank the rapporteurs for their insightful reports. I welcome the opportunity to discuss how the Council of Europe can and must enhance its engagement with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. To meet the 17 global goals, the rate of progress in the next 11 years will have to outpace that of the millennium development goal period. We need to be clear that the challenges to achieving the 2030 goals have only... 23/01/2019 | 16:01:40 Both reports are timely and relevant, and I congratulate the rapporteurs on their work. Thomas Jefferson, the former United States President, once said: “the basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” In my opinion, he professed that because a...