23/01/2024 | 19:51:34 Dear colleagues, after the last debate, have you felt the temperature in this house? Have you seen how much the discussion and debate is polarised? And how scary it is that we have so many wars, we have so many tragedies in so many parts of the world? But we simply sometimes cannot find the human language to talk about the real tragedies and use the language of human rights to find a solution? This report, for me, is not a report about migration; it's a test of our commitment to protecting... 12/10/2023 | 16:22:29 Dear colleagues, We definitely entered the times when simply there is no place for a normal vacation. There is simply no opportunity to sleep in peace. It is absolutely true as Mr Serhii SOBOLIEV believes that he does not remember any single plenary week in the Council of Europe when there were three debates connected to the current war. Wars in different places. Unfortunately, well, it feels like the West went on vacation some years ago in 2008, in August, when Russia invaded Georgia. Now we... 11/10/2023 | 18:05:33 Dear colleagues, dear rapporteur, Definitely I want to congratulate Mr Pieter OMTZIGT for opening this Pandora's box in this Hall, but I think the problem is that this Pandora's box is still quite small because the problem is much bigger than that. It's not only about one spyware app. It's about the reality that we live in. During recent years, when I hear different conversations about the role of artificial intelligence, about different software, I often have very mixed feelings, because... 10/10/2023 | 19:51:36 Dear colleagues, I think we all have seen that, yes the monitoring process may not be very pleasant for some countries. If we do accept the importance of the values and the tools that we have in this organisation, we have to respect these tools. Yes, it may not be pleasant to hear that there are some problems, but the goal of the report is not to praise any of the countries. The goal is actually to indicate now what is being positive and what are the problems that need to be improved. I'm... 10/10/2023 | 18:52:45 Dear colleagues, Definitely, France has very interesting traditions – long-lasting traditions – of democracy, and we found ourselves in this situation when, at the time we were conducting this report, there were a lot of tensions and discussions in French society on a number of questions and one of them is the judiciary. Taking this into account, we submitted the request to the Venice Commission to hear the conclusions and opinions of the Venice Commission on a number of questions. One of... 10/10/2023 | 17:21:10 Dear colleagues, while we condemn the far-right ideology movements, we are actually lacking one important thing in this conversation: it is understanding the roots these far-right ideologies are coming from. And unfortunately, whether we like it or not, there are two reasons. One of the reasons is when someone wants to weaponise people with a violent regime to use them for their own reasons. But, the second reason is when people feel that they are not heard, they are too fragile, insecure... 23/06/2023 | 11:41:23 Dear colleagues, I want to ask you, when you see some information in the internet or in social media, do you trust it? How often do you question this information that you got? Have you ever wondered why you just talked about something with your friends or your colleagues and then on your Instagram or Google or Facebook, you suddenly see it? Don't you find it's very very worrying? When we talk about the digital divide I'm very worried about disinformation and about how much we are all affected... 23/06/2023 | 10:26:01 Dear colleagues, Of course, we welcome this report., but I want to say that still something is lacking in this report. It is the understanding of what the definition of transnational repression actually is. I'm saying this because, in fact, there are so many people around all the world who are suffering from repressions of being in opposition to their governments. So many foreign journalists, in general journalists, are suffering because of their will to speak the truth, to find the truth... 22/06/2023 | 17:19:17 Dear colleagues, I think it's very special that we have these two reports together. On behalf of our Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, we are focusing on democracy. But our other committees, our colleagues, are talking about something very concrete that results from the absence of democracy and democratic governance by one aggressor, who started the war. And on behalf of the Committee, we welcome the report prepared by Mr Emanuelis ZINGERIS because we believe that this is the key... 21/06/2023 | 16:05:22 Dear Colleagues, Dear rapporteur, I want to congratulate everyone that we are finally moving. You know, in this hall and other halls, we were calling that we need reforms of this organisation, that we need fresh purpose and this Session, at least for me, what I hear and what I feel that, finally, there is a fresh understanding of our purpose. The priorities that were outlined in the Reykjavík Summit speak on behalf of themselves, because now we clearly see what this organisation should be...