07/04/2025 | 12:12:12 Mister President, Secretary General, colleagues, The democratic pact is most welcome. And I think the urgency of it, in view of the past few days, is even more important. What do we experience? We are experiencing the political weaponisation of criminal justice. Yes, colleagues, there is a democratic backsliding, but this time not in Budapest, not in Belgrade. But it has arrived in France, it has arrived in Poland. We have all experienced the news about the Paris demonstration yesterday. And... 28/01/2025 | 10:34:45 Thank you, Mister President, dear colleagues, Secretary General, dear Dora, Congratulations for this important report. I think we know that we need to look outside the Council of Europe. We need to look outside Europe under present global circumstances. Our attention every day is focusing today on Washington D.C., what's happening there. I think this report is extremely important from this perspective. It helps us to look outside Europe I am glad we have this report in front of us. I would... 27/01/2025 | 16:54:04 Thank you very much for the floor, Mister President. I would like to congratulate the rapporteurs concerning Georgia. Dear colleagues, Yes, I think we need to talk about Azerbaijan as well. Last year we have experienced a decision which we are still following. I think a theoretical decision on our side is we need to consider very seriously if challenging the credentials is an appropriate instrument or not to divert into the right direction countries which we intend to divert. I think it is a... 27/01/2025 | 12:41:00 Congratulations, President, on your election and your All Holiness, Patriarch BARTHOLOMEW I. I am a Hungarian Protestant, Calvinist, Presbyterian, and I am also the President of the European Conservatives Group and Patriots in this Assembly. We all know that the most persecuted minority in the world today are the Christians. Some estimate that it is around 200 million. What steps are being taken and what steps should be taken, in your opinion, by church and by political actors to safeguard... 02/10/2024 | 18:49:12 Thank you, President, and thank you, colleagues, for your important contributions. I would like to express my gratitude to the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) authorities for the co-operation, all the political parties, including the members of parliament in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). I would like to thank you very much for your co-operation while we have been preparing this report after six years. Don't forget, this has been quite a long process, but I think it... 02/10/2024 | 18:06:50 Alexander NIKOLOSKI has been appointed as member of government in North Macedonia. I have the honour to congratulate him from this place and I also have the honour of presenting our report on Bosnia and Herzegovina with his full support. Mister NIKOLOSKI and I consider that the discussion of this report is very timely because many developments have occurred over the last two years in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In some of our countries, these developments went unnoticed among the dramatic flow of... 02/10/2024 | 16:03:28 Thank you, Mister President. And dear colleagues, I look forward to co-operating with you as well and the Secretary General. Dear colleagues, I would like to advise this discussion to be extremely cautious. I don't think that we are in a situation where we could say that we are moving on chartered waters. This is the first time of this type of decision in the life of the Parliamentary Assembly. And even now it is not without very serious conclusions. I believe that we should pay attention to... 24/06/2024 | 16:02:52 Dear President, dear colleagues. I would like to congratulate Ms Elisabetta GARDINI and Mr Alfred HEER for their Reports. As I mentioned not long ago, it is really great to be back in this Chamber again, which still smells good and new. And I would like to congratulate our Secretary General and our President that you have been able to manage this hard period moving between the old and new locations in the European Parliament. And I think it was also important that we have been able to save... 24/06/2024 | 12:11:27 Mister President, dear colleagues, Mister President Sobotka, welcome to our circles. Your performance just a few seconds ago proves that we politicians are also made up of human beings. You are a musician as well, a very famous and respected artist in Austria, and at the same time, you are the president of your country. We are very honoured that you have accepted our invitation and, as you can see, we have got a very unique momentum celebrating the 75th anniversary of our Organisation and... 16/04/2024 | 18:00:14 Thank you very much, Mister President. The European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance, in principle, supports Kosovo becoming a member of the Council of Europe. We appreciate the efforts of the Kosovan people in the past decades towards democracy and Europe, since the fight of Ibrahim Rugova. However, we have three reasons why we cannot support the report in front of us. The three reasons are the following: The first one is that Kosovo has not fulfilled its own commitments – only...