08/04/2025 | 17:24:02 Mister President, Ladies and gentlemen, Mr George PAPANDREOU has said everything we need to know about the content, but now I want to talk about the consequences for our house rules. Point 1: We must make ourselves strong in all European institutions, not only here, but also in the EU, in the European political community, that we move in the same direction, but above all that we are loud. There is too much silence on this issue elsewhere in Europe. The second thing is that we deal with each... 26/06/2024 | 10:39:19 Mister President, Ladies and gentlemen, The Group of the Party of European Socialists, Democrats and Greens supports these reports. They are important to us and it is a good tradition in this House that we successfully move forward along this path. But this time it is something special - and that has to do with the dignity of our House. We have to admit our own mistakes at this point. It was also a mistake on the part of the majority of the Assembly here that we readmitted the Members of the... 10/10/2023 | 19:05:21 Dear colleagues, Monitoring is quite difficult to translate into German and means supervision and has quite a negative connotation. In fact, what we are doing here is discussing how the obligations and commitments of the individual member states are being met. And that's why I'm taking the liberty of saying something a bit fundamental at this point, because the question of which countries are under which monitoring is always a matter of discussion in all the groups. The crucial thing is that... 10/10/2023 | 17:52:50 Madam President Ladies and gentlemen For me as a German, this report is of course of particular importance. After all, in 1933, the extreme-right Nazis, with majority support in Parliament from all democratic parties, were handed power and brought about unspeakable suffering to their own country, to Europe and to the entire world. For me personally, this has an additional meaning. One of my predecessors as a member of parliament, a Social Democrat in Bochum, was killed by the Nazis in the... 25/04/2023 | 16:49:14 Madam President, Dear colleagues, The Road to Reykjavík is the destination, and the goal that this summit takes place is a success for us as members of parliament in a special way. That is why it is also our task as members of parliament to put Reykjavík up for discussion in our 46 national parliaments. That is why it is also our duty as members of parliament to name what successes have been achieved and not just primarily to lament what has not yet been achieved. That is why it is our duty... 15/03/2022 | 11:34:19 Madam President, Dear Colleagues, Dear Citizens of Ukraine, Dear People of Donetsk, It is terrible to see war in Europe again. That is why it is imperative to exclude Russia from the Council of Europe today. At the same time, it is hopeful that such a large majority of democratic politicians here in the Parliamentary Assembly are united in this historic hour. United for peace. I would like to say something about my partner city Donetsk, with which Bochum has been connected for over 30 years... 26/01/2022 | 11:17:31 Okay, yes. Mister President, Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you also from my side to Lord George FOULKES and to Mr Gianni INFANTINO both for the report and for the open debate that we are having here. I want to focus this on three points. One is soccer and values. It is sometimes a difficult balancing act that we have to walk. On the one hand, that sport is not political in the classical sense. On the other hand, that human right is indivisible. That's why it's important for me that we support... 01/10/2019 | 11:25:09 Madam President, Dear Colleagues, In fact, we are talking about something self-evident in this important report, namely on the perception of citizenship rights. But in reality, we also talk about one attitude, namely, moral courage. Bertolt Brecht once said: "A lot is won if someone gets up and says 'no'". We have many examples, my colleagues, previous speakers have already named them individually, where you could personally understand what has succeeded, what has failed, and also under what... 10/04/2019 | 18:17:21 We are talking about the future and even the existence of this Parliamentary Assembly. We need to be frank and open, not tactical. We are facing an unprecedented question: can we go on? How far can we go? I would like to speak to this issue not only as a socialist but as a German. I represent Bochum. Our partner city is Donetsk. I say this to the previous speakers from Ukraine: you have my sympathy. I was an election observer for the OSCE during the Maidan revolution. My heart bleeds because... 09/04/2019 | 16:09:55 The report addresses the relationship between our institution – the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly – and the European Parliament, with its much greater budgetary powers. The important thing in it is that we keep the right spirit. I thank the rapporteur and all those who were involved in drawing up the report. In the Council of Europe and the European Union, we have created a form of multilateralism or supranationalism that is unique in the world. It is worth defending, every...