10/10/2022 | 12:19:17 Thank you very much, Mr President. I think this is an interesting time to be in the Council of Europe. As of today, a hundred missiles – I'm told – have hit Ukraine. This is a time that we must stand up and be counted. If we want to make progress, which is what we are talking about and I have heard Mr Aleksander POCIEJ say, and Mr Frank SCHWABE, and other people, this is the time that we have to show our mettle. This is the first time since the Second World War we have gone back into a... 10/10/2022 | 11:55:37 Mr President, thank you. I shall keep it very briefly. Can I thank you, Ms Despina CHATZIVASSILIOU-TSOVILIS, the staff of the Council of Europe, and members throughout the Council of Europe, for the kindness that they showed with their words over the death of Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II. We were quite overwhelmed with how many of you sent messages of good will to the United Kingdom and to individual members of the Council of Europe. Her Majesty was an icon, and as Mr Tiny KOX said, she... 22/06/2022 | 12:47:00 Thank you, Mister President. I wonder, Madam President, many, many warnings were given to you and many others about dependence on Russia except the last German government - not the present one - has total dependence on gas and oil from Russia, now from a dictator who is causing enormous pain to one of our member States here. Given that the German government then was wrong about what happened, and the way they've treated their economy, were they also wrong in taking austerity measures against... 20/06/2022 | 12:18:24 Mr President, thank you. Mr Aleksander POCIEJ, thank you. I think we've got to look at progress about what we achieve as an organisation. We are now talking about having a fourth seminar, fourth conference about the future. But the future can only be set by the lessons of the past and one of the battles we're fighting now is for the very soul of Europe. At the moment we have a ghastly situation in the Ukraine. We, as Europe's parliamentarians, must stand up against tyranny, we must stand up... 20/06/2022 | 11:52:23 Mr President, thank you very much, indeed. I would like to bring this back onto the floor of the Plenary Session, Mr President. I think this is such an important debate which is putting people's lives at risk. We cannot get food out. It's affecting Africa. It's affecting Europe. The United Nations has made it very clear this is a humanitarian disaster in the making. There are 700 ships off Odessa at the moment waiting to get food out. We cannot do it. This organisation should be ahead of the... 25/04/2022 | 17:58:59 Thank you very much indeed, Mister President. I thought it's my job to tell you to be quiet. I'm quite shocked somebody stealing my thunder, but actually, in the words of English, as you know, Tiny, English is a very broad language and you were quite right to be able to use those words as many other words you could use. So, don't worry about it. Can I just thank Lithuanians, our Hungarian colleague, and our Ukrainian colleague for bringing forward the report on the way Russia has acted, the... 25/04/2022 | 16:58:58 Thank you very much. I'm absolutely delighted to be able to give the progress report, but I want to take you back because progress is the omnipresent of everything we do. In 1939, we all stood across Europe and said, "Good old Poland, they will hold back the hordes." 1939: Cavalry men on horses charged tanks; it was a catastrophe. The rest is history between '39 and '45. Eight weeks ago, roughly, we suddenly were surprised again "Ukrainians, they will stand up, they will fight, they will do... 27/01/2022 | 16:25:20 Thank you very much. I would like to start, if I may, just by reading a quote and it says this, "Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator but above all, thou shalt not be a bystander". That is what the Holocaust really stands for and that is what this is about. Eighty years ago, it was the first time in human history that people were killed on an industrial scale. Before that, there had been perpetrations of genocide – whatever they used to call it in Roman times – but it... 19/04/2021 | 17:05:51 We just heard from the Moldovan President about what progress can and should be made in countries which need our help probably more than anywhere else. But I would say that we ourselves actually have to make progress. Over the last few months we have actually seen the Council of Europe slipping back in my view. We have countries leaving the Convention. We have countries blatantly looking at aggression in other countries. We have countries that have ignored, dare I say, democracy. Part of it... 25/01/2021 | 13:27:30 Thank you so much, Mr President. Can I just congratulate and thank all colleagues for their contribution? I think the main thing to take out of this was obviously COVID-19, which so many speakers brought forward. The democracy, the openness, the not abuse of power, but having to be done. I give one example very simply for you the moment is that the French have a curfew. Is it necessary? Yes, it probably is. Should it continue any longer than it has to? No, it shouldn't. I think that goes for...