24/04/2026 | 10:07:39 Thank you, Mister President. We are living in a period of multiple crises: geopolitical crises, economic and financial crises, of course security crises and a climate crisis. And this is obviously a time for concern, but like all crises, it can also be a time for opportunity. I am convinced, and so is my group, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, that in this period our liberal democracies can assert themselves, but to do so they must work together. And they must work on three... 22/04/2026 | 19:58:44 Thank you, Madam President. This amendment is based on facts alleged in a press article which, surprisingly, was published a few days before our debates. These facts have not been officially supported or confirmed and, according to my information, do not correspond to legal practice, which provides for such accounts to be frozen until the courts have reached a final decision. So it would be extremely surprising if these funds had been unfrozen, and probably, but this is a personal... 22/04/2026 | 19:32:41 Thank you, Madam Chair. Dear colleagues, It is sad. The first draft report targets my country, Switzerland, excessively, based on unbalanced and sometimes poorly substantiated elements. After a great deal of constructive work in the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and with the rapporteur, whom I would like to thank for this, it has been possible to produce a resolution that, while not perfect, is more balanced and no longer targets a single country for no objective reason. But it... 21/04/2026 | 19:50:29 Thank you, Mister President. First of all, I would like to thank the rapporteur, or should I say the rapporteurs, since there have been two successive rapporteurs on this issue, for her work, and also to congratulate our colleague, Mrs Petra BAYR, for her chairmanship for the last two years of the Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights, now excellently replaced by our colleague Mr Sergiy VLASENKO, since this is a Committee that does important work and has... 21/04/2026 | 11:59:39 Thank you, Mister President. The report we are discussing today is important, and we must dispel the notion – if that is the impression people might get from listening to this debate – that politicians today are only concerned with themselves. They are not concerned with protecting themselves, they are concerned – and we are concerned today, through this debate – with protecting our institutions and, therefore, protecting democracy. And I would like to thank the rapporteur, because this... 27/01/2026 | 17:02:55 Maybe two elements, quickly. Thank you, Lord David BLENCATHRA, for mentioning the Alliance observers. I think it's very important that we work together and in this Alliance on the topic of this report, because there really are many things we should be working on and implementing. We were thinking of this report a little bit as a toolbox, and now we should implement it in the Alliance, but also in our national parliaments. We are all members of national parliaments. We should look at this... 27/01/2026 | 17:02:04 This is an issue that really needs to be addressed holistically. Basically, we need to strengthen the democratic aspects in our society as a whole, the resilience, obviously, of our institutions and our infrastructure for elections, but also the whole democratic debate in our countries, throughout the electoral cycle, which, indeed, lasts several years, as we knowhere in the Council of Europe. This is part of the new democratic pact proposed by the Secretary General, and it is a question of... 27/01/2026 | 16:08:11 Thank you, Madam President, and congratulations to the judges we have just elected to the European Court of Human Rights. Imagine, Madam President, that we wanted to hold a sitting of the Assembly and suddenly the power went out. This demonstrates, as we have just experienced, the importance of infrastructure resilience, and it is exactly the same type of issue that can arise when organising an election on a small, but also on a large, scale. This report has its origins in a period that we... 26/01/2026 | 17:08:03 Thank you, Madam Chair. "There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen". We all felt like we were living this famous quote at the beginning of 2026, witnessing a breakdown in the international system, but a breakdown that came at the end of a long period of profound change, particularly in the political attitudes of the major powers and their attitude toward international law. A few days ago, I was in Davos, where many leaders, particularly from European... 03/10/2025 | 11:16:04 Thank you, Mister Chair. As you can see, I found the button on the first try. And, above all, thank you to the rapporteur for this report, which is important because it enables our Assembly, or will help our Assembly, to function properly. The issues that the rapporteur has just raised are crucial to the functioning of this Assembly, which works in parallel with the national parliaments. And as we are all national parliamentarians, we know that this can pose practical difficulties. But this...