13/10/2023 | 12:57:42 Yes, Mister President, thank you very much. Dear colleagues, I would like to thank my esteemed colleague and my good friend Mr Birgir THÓRARINSSON and, of course, the Secretariat for an excellent job as always. This honourable Assembly adopted the resolution on Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban taking power by force in August 2021. Since then, the human rights situation has gone, as expected, from bad to worse, not least for women and girls, and so has the humanitarian situation. The... 12/10/2023 | 18:33:03 Thank you, Mister President, Dear colleagues, I want to thank Mr Domagoj HAJDUKOVIĆ for his excellent Report and the Secretariat for its support. Today, our Assembly has the opportunity to stand for the values it defends. I hope that thanks to your vote, we will be able to show that we do not let tragic events go, but that we are ready to take our responsibilities to reverse the course of things. Our compass are the member states’ statutory and international human rights obligations. Over the... 11/10/2023 | 20:03:30 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Dear colleagues, The issue we are discussing here today is one of the most hotly debated during this plenary session, as it concerns the very essence of democracy, rule of law and human rights. Although, many incidents have occurred in many member states, it is at this Assembly’s best interests and duty to protect these principles from the use of widespread malicious spyware. And we are tirelessly working to achieve this goal. Greece, as the... 23/06/2022 | 16:02:16 Thank you, Mister President. Dear colleagues, Millions of migrants attempt to reach Europe hoping for a better future for themselves and their loved ones. This has triggered tremendous pressure on frontline countries and we all know it. For this reason, finding an adequate solution to migration pressure in Europe is essential. We must be very careful though in bringing the right answers to problems we are facing. Solutions considered must on no account be to the detriment of human rights... 22/06/2022 | 18:55:14 Thank you, Mister President. Dear colleagues, We are about to vote for extremely important and timely reports. First of all, I would like to thank the rapporteurs for their rapid reaction, for their substantive work, and for having proposed realistic and to-the-point recommendations. Madam Mariia MEZENTSEVA, you already said it when you were appointed for this report. You probably never thought that your own country would be faced with the most terrible aggression from the Russian Federation... 15/03/2022 | 12:55:16 Dear colleagues, The last diplomat who remains in Mariupol is the Greek Consul George Androulakis. He is trapped there. Mariupol and the places around are places where Greeks are living for the last 3 000 years. At least 150 000 Greeks are living there. The first 12 people who were killed in the place were Greeks. But it's not only about my compatriots. It is about fundamental freedoms. We're discussing the report of my colleague Ms Ingjerd SCHOU whom I congratulate for her work. What does... 27/01/2022 | 17:12:46 Well, I'm very interested in all of this for various reasons. Firstly, I think it is important. We have to come to some kind of agreement to ensure that issues of history not always lead to dissent. We know that can be a weapon. It's often used in this way. I think this is characterised by various attempts. Attempts for example to teach history. It needs to be done in an objective and interesting way. That brings me to some conclusions. Let's jump back some decades when we ourselves were at... 25/01/2022 | 18:52:38 Thank you Mr President. Ladies and Gentlemen, dear colleagues, Of course, I support the excellent report of our colleague Ms Annicka ENGBLOM. It is a very important and timely report. During the antiquity, the Greeks used to say that there is nothing new. I refer to the period in history when journalists were persecuted and condemned. Through The Times newspaper, a journalist called Howell, covering the Crimean war, we were told that the British soldiers did not have anything to eat at that... 24/01/2022 | 19:54:41 Thank you, Madam President. Dear colleagues, This report is very important for our committee and for me as the new chair – thank you for your congratulations – and as a Greek parliamentarian. I would like to thank Mr Oleksii GONCHARENKO for his substantial work on this report. Yes, the European Commission has a very difficult task to create a legislative framework for effective migration management in Europe. We all agree that we need to improve the current situation of humanitarian response... 29/09/2021 | 17:43:06 Thank you Chair, The previous discussion is linked with the message from the President of the Assembly. We must show leadership, we must pre-empt the future, not just follow developments. We must be proactive. This reminded me of a discussion I had in Munich years ago, with Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who led Germany for 16 years. Over a nice lunch I asked him, what has been the most difficult thing that you did in your political career? He said, to convince people that I could see things...