30/09/2021 | 10:34:40 Thank you, Madam. I would like to congratulate our rapporteur and also the Secretariat for this extremely well-balanced text we have got in front of us and I would like ask to all of you to vote in favour. The United States, in the Doha Agreement more than two years ago, signalled all this. So, it was not a surprise to anyone that the departure was going to take place. The way it happened was a disaster. It was a failure. It was a disaster and failure for all of us. Now we need to investigate... 29/09/2021 | 16:31:22 First of all President I would like to congratulate you for organising this panel for the second time. I think we have now got a new model which gives great visibility to a certain matter and obviously to the Council of Europe as well, but also we have the substance because in the morning we were able to unanimously accept very important reports which have been referred to. I would like to ask you, President János Áder: you are not only a green expert but also a Christian politician. Less... 29/09/2021 | 12:27:46 The report received unanimous support of the Committee. Chairperson, dear colleagues, In our view, the report charters a way forward on how to innovate and modernise democracy to make it more efficient but also more inclusive, accountable and more responsive to the needs and views of citizens. It explains how participatory and deliberative democracy can be complementary to the representative form of democracy. We do not see any conflict between the two and it even strengthens the functioning... 28/09/2021 | 16:55:36 Thank you very much, Mr President. The Ukraine is a very important member of the European family which has been targeted by aggression and the territorial integrity and sovereignty must be respected by everybody. However, dear colleagues, one of us member of Parliament, Mr Lőrinc NACSA, last week was banned from entering Ukraine with the humanitarian transport. Moreover, today, the Ukraine has announced its quite intimidating statement to punish one of its neighbours for signing a gas... 27/09/2021 | 15:47:10 First of all I would like to congratulate also Ms Kalesnikava for being nominated and given the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize of the Council of Europe. And we hope that she is going to get free along with the other 600 political prisoners of Belarus soon. Secondly, dear colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the issue of Afghanistan. We will have an urgent debate on the subject. It is needed. We all know that the withdrawal agreement, the so-called Doha agreement, implementation... 23/06/2021 | 10:52:33 Thank you very much. Dear colleagues, I must now interrupt the list of speakers. The speeches of members on the speakers list who have been present physically or remotely during the debate but have not been able to speak may be given to the Table Office for publication in the Official Report provided that speakers connected remotely can report their actual presence when the debate is closed. I remind colleagues that typewritten texts must be submitted electronically no later than four hours... 21/06/2021 | 12:47:20 Thank you, Dora. Dear colleagues, the Hungarian presidency has started, along with the European football championship. The Hungarian public has to divide its attention between the Hungarian presidency and the European Championship. As you all know, the Standing Committee and the Bureau had a kind of semi-hybrid meeting in Budapest. Our President and our Secretary General visited Budapest, plenty of events are coming up. Our priorities, the Hungarian foreign minister will introduce them in the... 21/04/2021 | 12:34:30 First of all, I would like to express my full solidarity with the democracy movement on behalf of our Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy. And secondly, I would like to express my absolute solidarity with our Polish colleague, Mr Arkadiusz MULARCZYK, who asked us to condemn the anti-minority intimidation against the Polish minority in Belarus. And I would like to call on all Council of Europe institutions and instruments to follow very closely the situation of the Polish minority in... 20/04/2021 | 16:59:32 Dear colleagues, this was an excellent debate. These debates are actually have been heard since 1993 in our enlarged assembly open to delegations from OECD members. I was very glad that we had now Mexican and Canadian colleagues with us, who are obviously not members of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. This is the most inclusive expression of multilateralism that I pay tribute to. For the first time the debates of our enlarged assembly are being held on the basis of a report... 20/04/2021 | 12:55:05 ... for your participation, both Secretary General in this debate. I would like to thank you as this is probably my first appearance as the Chairman of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy to express my gratitude for your unanimous support yesterday in my election. In a few weeks the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will hold a ministerial session organised by the German Chairmanship. This is the whole target of our exercise. On this occasion the ministers are...