30/01/2025 | 10:09:10 Thank you, Mister President. Dear colleagues, On 17 December 2024, the Committee of Ministers transmitted to the Assembly a draft Council of Europe convention for the protection of the profession of lawyers, prepared by the Committee of Experts on the Protection of Lawyers and the European Committee on Legal Co-operation. We committed to giving our statutory opinion as soon as possible, but this doesn't mean that drafting was swift and straightforward. This draft text is the culmination of... 28/01/2025 | 19:54:11 Thank you, Madam Chair. It's really a very interesting topic. And today I found myself that we are speaking more and more of the terms which people used in Middle Ages. And unfortunately rapporteur Mr Andrea ORLANDO is not here, as he will be very familiar with the word "condottieri", which was used in the Middle Ages by Italians. And Italian cities actually just hire private companies to protect their cities. Today we are discussing issues which actually combine two different phenomena. The... 28/01/2025 | 12:30:43 Thank you, Madam Chair. I would first congratulate rapporteur Ms Dora BAKOYANNIS for an excellent and very kind report. I would like to say that when I started my academic career, everybody, almost all my students, criticised some 20 years ago the very existence of international law, using each and every opportunity to criticise it. Where are we now? We are now thinking about coming back to the situation where this international law existed and functioned as it was. What was the main... 02/10/2024 | 15:51:52 Thank you, Mister President, It's not an easy or pleasant task to discuss the issue of lifting immunity of your colleague, but we should take into account that it's quite essential for the further proper functioning of our organisation. For sure, immunity is not for a personal benefit. It is given to the members of this Assembly to organise the proper activity of this organisation. And we are not in a court. We cannot judge when we shouldn't judge. And we shouldn't even try to understand the... 02/10/2024 | 10:19:56 Thank you, Madam Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, First, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to Ms Thórhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR for her excellent report which tackles the core issues of freedom of speech, transparency, and protection of human rights. Yesterday, many of us had the privilege of participation in the public hearing with Mr Julian ASSANGE. This provided a unique opportunity to delve deeper into his case and reaffirm the vital importance of upholding the rule of law and... 01/10/2024 | 19:30:07 Thank you Mister Chair, It's really very complicated to speak here, to speak today when we are facing the ongoing escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, not too far from my region. And this is not the first discussion of the escalation in the Middle East in this hemicycle. But I'm afraid it's not the last one, because from time to time, we are coming back to this issue. I heard the very emotional speeches of my colleagues from Israel and Palestine. I would like to say that first of... 01/10/2024 | 12:57:09 Thank you. Thank you, Mister President. First of all, Mister Secretary General, I would like to congratulate you for the election and for the very interesting timing for your being as a Secretary General. I would like to raise the issue of the further challenges our organisation might be facing in the future, interconnected with the protecting of its core values: rule of law, democracy and human rights. One of the main aspects I would like to raise is quite important, and it would be one of... 18/04/2024 | 18:18:12 Thank you, thank you, Mister Chair. The topic of tomorrow's debate: the protection of children against online violence. What would be added value of this discussion towards what's going on, not too far from our continent, in countries somehow engaged in a co-operation with us. We have a lot of speeches here leading to non-action. And this is the most complicated and the most dangerous thing. We cannot say theoretically we should protect children, we should protect theoretical children, and we... 18/04/2024 | 16:02:07 Thank you Madam Chair. You know, artificial intelligence has drastically changed our world and frankly speaking some 20–30 years ago we would dream of having artificial intelligence as a tool for solving this or that problem. Today, in a couple of seconds, I may somehow create a picture of our Assembly and this is an asset of artificial intelligence but it has brought with it a lot of shortcomings and challenges. And this attempt is to provide rather humanistic moral values to the artificial... 15/04/2024 | 12:48:57 Thank you, Mister Chair, honourable colleagues, This year we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of our organisation, the very existence of which crucially ameliorated the democratic environment of our continent. The very notion of "Europe" is considered as a pattern of quality in all dimensions, including quality of life, quality of environment, quality of security, and for sure quality of democracy. The privilege of being a member of the Council of Europe is an indication of high-quality...