27/06/2024 | 15:53:35 Thank you, Mr Chairman. The rapporteur, Mr Piero FASSINO, is right: he is right to broaden the scope of his report to cover the whole situation in Cyprus; he is right to point out that, unfortunately, this country has been split in two for 50 years this year, and that this is a sad anniversary; and he is also right to recall the whole framework that has been developed in recent years, notably the resolutions of our Assembly but also those of the United Nations Security Council. On behalf of... 26/06/2024 | 10:51:07 Thank you, Mr Chairman. The crime of aggression is the worst of all crimes, because it contains within it the catalyst for all the others. This is the observation our Assembly already made last year on the basis of the report I had the honour of presenting, and I thank Mr Davor Ivo STIER for referring to it and following up this important report. As he mentioned, unfortunately, the situation has not improved: on the contrary, it has deteriorated, making it all the more necessary for the... 25/06/2024 | 10:56:18 Thank you, Mister chairman. A few days ago, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation's second Federal Constitution. This Constitution of 1874 introduced a popular instrument that nobody in Switzerland today could imagine not having: it is the instrument of the referendum, with the possibility not for the authorities to decide when they wish to consult the population, but for the population itself to contest a law passed by parliament by collecting 50,000 signatures; in a... 18/04/2024 | 17:45:36 Thank you, Mr President. One hundred and sixty years ago, in 1864, Henry Dunant founded the first Geneva Convention with the aim of bringing a little humanity to the horror of war. One hundred and sixty years on, its principles should still be valid, and should continue to inspire us. Article 1 in common of the current Geneva Conventions, those of 1949, which are universal in scope, obliges all states on the planet to apply and ensure the application of the principles of the Geneva... 18/04/2024 | 15:45:54 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Artificial intelligence is a revolution that will affect the whole of our society, our economy, our politics and our institutional framework. It was important for the Council of Europe to be active on this issue. Basically, it's as if we were discovering a new continent. There's an enormous amount to come from artificial intelligence: new possibilities, some for the better, some for the worse. We need to prepare ourselves for this exploration of a new continent for... 24/01/2024 | 18:48:22 Thank you, Madam President. Yesterday we were discussing whether to use the term "barbaric" or "undignified", "ignoble", sorry. Torture is both, and we can use both adjectives. I'd like to thank the rapporteur, our excellent colleague Mr Constantinos EFSTATHIOU, for this excellent report, which really takes stock of an essential element, an essential value which lies at the heart of this Organisation's activities, a legal obligation which is often a constitutional obligation, he reminds us of... 23/01/2024 | 18:12:13 Thank you, Madam Chairman. Obviously, this debate is taking place with a great deal of emotion - and that's understandable - but I believe, on the contrary, Mr BISMUTH, that the report delivered to us by the rapporteur Mr FASSINO is a credit to this Assembly, because he delivers an extremely balanced report, which looks at problems from both sides and in an extremely objective way. It's important for us to be able to debate it, albeit with emotion at times, but also by looking at the reality... 23/01/2024 | 16:29:27 Thank you, Mister President. Mister President, I'm one of the two co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of this Assembly on Montenegro. Your country has been in a post monitoring dialogue since 2015. I want to congratulate the country for the progress made in the recent weeks or months, because we have been quite impassioned in this Assembly to see progress in the four main topics that the monitoring report was pointing to: the reform of the judicial system, the protection of journalists... 23/01/2024 | 15:33:03 Thank you, Mr President, for the commitments you have made and for your important words on multilateralism. Direct dialogue is also important in a peace process, and my country, Switzerland, has often had the opportunity to host discussions on the future of Cyprus, and would obviously be delighted to do so again. Can we be optimistic about the near future of such direct dialogues? I'd be interested to hear what you have to say on the subject. And then the second question: you rightly put a... 13/10/2023 | 10:54:28 Thank you, Madam President. "A thing is not just because it is law, but it must be law because it is just" (Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu). I wanted to start with this quote, because that's what we're talking about today. The rapporteur put it extremely well. It's about the separation of powers, checks and balances. Mr Pieter OMTZIGT's report is based on serious work. Firstly, that of the Venice Commission, to which the Committee asked for an opinion, and then within the...