08/04/2025 | 10:55:58 Madam President, throughout history, the nations of Europe have sought to dominate their neighbours. It's nothing new. But today, while the objective is the same, the consequences for all of us is the loss of something we cherish most dearly. Our freedom. Malign foreign influence, most especially from Russia and China, pose the gravest threat to free and democratic societies that we have taken for granted for the past 80 years. The United Kingdom's National Security Law provides us with the... 30/01/2025 | 19:10:51 Thank you very much. The debate is now closed. The Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media has presented a draft resolution, to which six amendments have been tabled. I understand that the Vice Chair of the Committee wishes to propose to the Parliamentary Assembly that Amendments 1, 2 and 6 to the draft resolution, which were unanimously approved, be declared as definitively approved. Is that so Ms Hoyo? It is? If no one objects, I will consider the amendments to be approved. Is... 29/01/2025 | 17:18:19 President, I believe that this is a very important issue, and a decision to approve or not approve the delegation credentials from Georgia should not be taken lightly. These past days, I've listened to arguments on both sides, and as a rule, I'm a person who believes it's better that people are in rather than have them out. But having met representatives of Georgian opposition groups and also listened to the report from my colleague Lord David BLENCATHRA, who is an observer at the Georgian... 01/10/2024 | 16:33:17 President, few of us sitting in this Chamber today would disagree that our most precious gifts are our children. They're our future. We love them, we cherish them, we care for them. And yet countless numbers of refugee and migrant children go missing across Europe every year. As Mr Julian PAHLKE points out in his report, his excellent report, all too often, the plight of these missing children goes unreported, while their vulnerability and exploitation to abuse by criminals is extremely high... 01/10/2024 | 13:03:13 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Our best defence against the enemies of freedom and free speech is our free press. I spent 27 years of my life working in newspapers and in those three decades I saw more and more challenges to that freedom. And now another three decades further on, I see governments around the world including some phere too in Europe, controlling and wanting to control the press. State actors are investing heavily in the media in order to own and control it... 26/06/2024 | 12:52:58 Colleagues, Vladimir Putin's act of aggression against Ukraine has not been witnessed in Europe since the early part of the last century. The invasion of Ukraine followed the most duplicitous act when Putin declared he had no intention of attacking that country almost at the time his troops crossed the border. The free and democratic nations of Europe must stand with the Ukrainian people against this aggression – this tyranny. A tyranny which has taken a free, liberated, newly democratic and... 25/06/2024 | 13:11:08 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) My friend and colleague and a greatly valued member of this Assembly—the late Baroness Doreen Massey—was a passionate advocate of involving young people in the work of this body. When I first became a member of this Council of Europe in November 2017, Doreen took me under her wing and she became my mentor. We had much in common in that we were both strongly argued that we had a duty to hand on the values of this Council of Europe to the young... 30/01/2020 | 16:46:45 President, Colleagues, Can I immediately apologise for not being here at the start of the debate. I do apologise, I thought that the debate was starting a bit later. It is my fault entirely, and I meant no disrespect. Can I congratulate Ms Serap YAŞAR on this report and thank you for the way she willingly engaged and entered into discussions to consider the amendments that we put before her and also thanks to the Secretariat for all the hard work that they have done. Across Europe, we have... 28/01/2020 | 17:23:57 Madam President, To live in a society where there is no questions asked and none are tolerated, is not to live in a democracy or know the blessings of freedom. The American Richard Feynman summed it up well when he said "I would rather have questions that can't be answered, than answers that cannot be questioned". Freedom of the press ensures that we can question. That our society is free, that people are informed. And we must always fight to defend a free press, recognizing its vital part in... 02/10/2019 | 16:43:57 Mr President, I once borrowed some money: £7 million to be precise. That's about €10,000 at today's rate. Not for me personally, I was Chair of the Finance Committee of my county, and the county of Gwent was the first to borrow from the European Investment Bank. We obtained a loan at the most favourable interest rates and it helped us fund some key, socially-beneficial projects. Today, after 10 years of austerity, local government in the United Kingdom is fighting to maintain basic services...