19/06/2023 | 15:37:53 Thank you, Mister Chairman. When I arrived at the Council of Europe, people who had been there longer than I had said to me: "Observing elections is one of the best things we do in this institution, one of the most useful things." "One of", I emphasise, of course; there are many others. It was true. The Council of Europe was wondering about the impact of the current crises in our world. On the subject of election observation, and as chairman of the Swiss delegation, I would like to thank the... 27/04/2023 | 15:01:03 Thank you, Mister President. Mister President, first of all, let me on behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group thank the Icelandic Presidency of the Committee of Ministers for the remarkable work that has been done in the presidency and also for preparing the summit of Reykjavik. The road will lead us to Reykjavik but it does not stop in Reykjavik. There will be other steps further, it goes further. And my question would be, do you agree that it would probably be... 25/04/2023 | 18:36:51 The rapporteur said it clearly and subtly in his report: there is no hierarchy between the different texts. It is a Swiss person who is telling you this, one of the few countries in which, in reality, there is a hierarchy, since we place the convention above our own constitution, but this is an exception. There are few of them and, in most countries, there is not a system of hierarchy but rather of co-habitation between the national constitution or the constitutional texts, the convention and... 25/04/2023 | 15:34:53 Thank you, Mister President. [in French] Madam President of the Committee of Ministers, first of all, thank you for everything Iceland has been doing during this semester. A lot of work in many, many fields - I will just mention the child, you have spoken about the children, rights for LGBTI people, for example, and the preparation of the summit. In this context, two questions: What will be the place of the special tribunal for the crime of aggression? Will there be a strong statement by... 24/04/2023 | 15:58:03 Thank you, Mister President. You are right, Mister President: this is the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, but it is true that it is also special for me, as a representative of Switzerland, to speak here in this house which is the house of the European Parliament. I believe that this shows, finally, that all the countries represented here are fighting for the same values: the values of the rule of law, democracy and human rights which are the foundation of our institution. The... 27/01/2023 | 10:46:39 Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, I would like to thank all those from the political groups who support this report and who have made compliments. Mr FRIDEZ, you said "thank you, Damien COTTIER", but you should say "thank you, Fabien GOUTTEFARDE", and you should say "thank you, Günter SCHIRMER" to thank the secretariat support. This is really where the work has been done. I believe that Mr Vladimir VARDANYAN is right when he says that we will not be able to stop this technology and that... 27/01/2023 | 10:05:33 Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Dear colleagues, This report was, I must say, essentially the work of our former colleague from the Assembly, Mr Fabien GOUTTEFARDE from France, who was rapporteur until last summer on this subject. He made an important contribution to this work and I was content, in fact, with the indispensable support as always of the Secretariat, to finalise what Mr Fabien GOUTTEFARDE had prepared. What are we talking about today? A category of new weapons that has been under... 26/01/2023 | 17:41:55 Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the Chairman of the Committee for the overview he has given. I am speaking on Montenegro. I am co-rapporteur with Mr Nicos TORNARITIS from Cyprus, who is not here, and I must say that we are somewhat concerned - and the President mentioned this - because the current situation in Montenegro is one of institutional deadlock, insofar as there is no longer a majority for the Government, the President of the Republic is refusing to appoint a new Prime Minister... 26/01/2023 | 11:57:09 Thank you, Mr President. The observation made in this amendment of the serious problem posed by the blockage in the United Nations Security Council is correct. Nevertheless, we believe that it is not the Council of Europe's role to propose to another international organisation how to reform itself and that the observation and the call to make a change are sufficient in the rest of the text. Therefore, it would be better to delete this sentence that speaks about another international... 26/01/2023 | 11:43:33 Thank you, Mr President. I am delighted that the debate is ending with this strong statement by the Chairman of the French delegation, which echoes statements by many countries and institutions: two days ago here the German Foreign Minister, a few days ago the Dutch Government, not so long ago the President of the European Commission and many countries and governments who are pleading for the creation of this international tribunal for the crime of aggression, which our Assembly had already...