22/04/2026 | 17:35:39 Thank you, Madam President. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin by sincerely thanking our rapporteur for the high quality of this report, which forcefully reminds us that capital punishment is fundamentally incompatible with human dignity, the right to life and the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment. The universal abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances is not simply a political objective, it is a moral, legal and civilisational requirement. Europe can be proud... 21/04/2026 | 11:57:24 Mister President, Ladies and gentlemen, The report by our colleague, Ms Elisabetta GARDINI, aims to objectify a phenomenon that is unfortunately increasingly present in our democracies. We cannot help but be struck by your very accurate comment, which emphasises the deterrent effect of such violence on younger generations, on women and on people from minority groups who would like to become involved in politics. And we see this – including at local and regional levels – where these phenomena... 27/01/2026 | 18:17:15 Thank you, Mr President, Ladies and gentlemen, This report by our colleague Mr Piero FASSINO is a useful reminder of an observation that, unfortunately, some people still doubt: defending Ukraine against Russia means defending Europe as a whole. If we were to allow Mr Vladimir PUTIN to go any further, we would run the risk of ending up with an unjust peace that would have far-reaching consequences for all the countries on the continent. Allow me to give my particular support to the... 30/09/2025 | 18:50:29 Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen Ladies and gentlemen, Allow me first of all to thank our colleagues Mr Eerik-Niiles KROSS and Mr George PAPANDREOU for their excellent report which, as many of us have said, makes a particularly alarming assessment of the situation in Hungary, a member of our Organisation since 1990 and a member of the European Union since 2004. Since 2010, when Viktor ORBÁN came to power, our Assembly has adopted several resolutions calling on the Hungarian authorities to... 30/09/2025 | 11:44:39 Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen, As many of our colleagues have pointed out, the human rights situation in Türkiye has deteriorated steadily over the last ten years. Today, Türkiye is the main state to submit applications to the European Court of Human Rights, and the execution of the Court's judgments is an important issue, as the Turkish government has consistently refused to execute some of these judgments, which are highly symbolic in political terms. I am thinking, of course, of the... 08/04/2025 | 18:14:49 Mister Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen, Allow me first of all to salute the initiative of our colleague George PAPANDREOU, who has enabled us to have this particularly interesting debate. I would also like to take this opportunity to respond to the comments of our Hungarian colleague who, just now, referred to a recent court decision concerning the leader of a political party in France. I'm a member of parliament from a country which is undoubtedly not perfect, which undoubtedly has a certain... 29/01/2025 | 11:35:36 Madam President, Ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I would like to take my turn in congratulating our colleague Luz MARTINEZ SEIJO on her report, which bears witness to the very special link that exists between the teaching of history and the preservation of democratic values. At a time when we are commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, and when there are fewer and fewer witnesses to that era, it is essential that we ask ourselves how we can... 28/01/2025 | 11:53:20 Madam President, Mister President of the European Court of Human Rights, Ladies and gentlemen, The report presented to us today by our colleague Ms Dora BAKOYANNIS gives us the opportunity to discuss the upheavals the world is experiencing today, and I would like to thank her for this. Many speakers have referred to the upheavals in the international system, marked by the questioning of Western domination, the emergence of new powers, notably India and China, the authoritarian drift of... 25/06/2024 | 18:27:07 Madam President, Ladies and gentlemen, Allow me in turn to thank our colleague Stephanie KRISPER for the high quality of her Report, which reminds us –and I can only agree with what our colleague Olivier BITZ has just said– of the need to put in place asylum procedures that respect human rights and the values we share. We have to say it from the outset, despite what some may think. No one flees their country in good faith. The people who come knocking at our door seeking asylum are first and... 17/04/2024 | 17:17:52 Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Allow me first of all to congratulate the rapporteurs on the quality of their work, and of course to extend a special greeting to you, dear Ms KARA-MURZA, for your particularly moving testimony, which I believe deeply affected us all. As has already been said, the situation of your husband, Vladimir Kara-Murza, is particularly critical. Arrested in Moscow in April 2022 and sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason, he is now imprisoned in Siberia in...