25/01/2023 | 18:04:45 Mr. President, Dear colleagues, I would like to thank the rapporteurs for these three reports which allow us to debate the situation of violence against women and the implementation of the Istanbul Convention. The Council of Europe is and must remain at the forefront of this issue. Indeed, the are still far too many cases of violence against women. A study conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights indicates that in the EU, slightly more than one woman in five has suffered... 25/01/2023 | 12:21:22 Madam President, Dear colleagues, There are a range of contact tracing applications available for mobile phones, many of them which may be installed free of charge. Some of these applications were used by the governments of the member states of our organisation in an attempt to limit contagion during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we often say in this House, public debate and transparency about government action in this area are essential in order to foster public trust. These privacy standards... 24/01/2023 | 17:43:02 Madam President, Ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I would like to thank the rapporteur for the quality of this report, which sets out clear prospects for the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe that we have been calling for. This Summit, let us be clear, was born in tragic circumstances and signals, at least in the short term, the end of the pan-European ambition of our Organisation. But this major crisis is also an opportunity to reinvent and strengthen the... 22/06/2022 | 11:40:29 Madam President, Madam Rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Stockholm, Dear Colleagues, The report of our colleague Ms Petra BAYR underlines how much the prevention and the fight against antisemitism are a continuous fight that we, unfortunately, have to carry on. It gives us alarming figures on antisemitism in Europe. I can only corroborate these figures in the light of the situation in France, where the number of antisemitic incidents has increased significantly in recent years. According to an... 21/06/2022 | 11:18:52 Miste President, Dear Colleagues, I would like to thank our colleague Mr Bogdan KLICH for this report which underlines the extent to which our States are interdependent for their security and stability, and which points out the challenges that the Council of Europe must face in order to continue to play its role as a democratic watchdog fully, but also to make its contribution to the democratic security of Europe. I would like to mention three points raised by this report in particular. The... 20/06/2022 | 15:39:14 Madam President, Dear colleagues, In all the states of our organisation, extremist parties are on the rise and, with them, hate speech. In a world plagued by war and serious crises, whether health or economic crises, this hate speech tends to be against scapegoats. It is often foreigners, refugees or, quite simply, those who have a different culture. It is fully legitimate for our Assembly to address this issue and to question the role of parties, in line with our previous positions, notably... 26/04/2022 | 10:40:42 Mr President, Dear colleagues, I would like to thank our colleague for this report, which gives a very complete overview of the issues at stake in the strategic partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Union. The Treaty of Lisbon was supposed to mark a major step forward, by expressly providing for the accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, more than twelve years after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December... 27/01/2022 | 11:19:48 Mr President, dear colleagues, First of all, I would like to congratulate our colleague Mr André GATTOLIN for this excellent report, which reminds us how common the practice of enforced disappearances is in the member states of the Council of Europe. I regret that the member states of our organisation do not give more importance to this problem. Indeed, only 21 member states of the Council of Europe have ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced... 23/06/2021 | 18:47:17 Madam President, Ladies and gentlemen, The situation of the Crimean Tatars requires our utmost attention today, as this community is facing persecution. The Committee of Ministers has condemned Russia's military action to take illegal possession of Crimea. However, it is now de facto Russian law that applies in that part of Ukraine and it is Russia that is organising the repression of the Tatars under the guise of the fight against terrorism. The Tatars are paying for their refusal to submit... 22/06/2021 | 17:11:38 Mister President, Dear colleagues, I thank our colleagues Mr Andrej HUNKO and Ms Elvira KOVÁCS for allowing us to address the socio-economic issues of the Covid-19 crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic has damaged our economies and societies. Our states have put in place emergency measures to mitigate the effects of the crisis in the very short term. The challenge now is to prepare for a return to normality. Our rapporteur is proposing a very ambitious and, in a way, maximalist vision in budgetary...