25/06/2019 | 10:38:39 Thank you, Mr President, I too would like to thank Petra De SUTTER on behalf of my group and personally for her extraordinary work in the Council of Europe. Especially as chairman of the Social Committee, she has always pushed us to the limits with topics, and introduced us to new topics. That was a fantastic time and in the last 48 hours Petra has been at the leader's desk all the time and has led us out of many different difficult dead-ends. I wish you all the best in your work in the... 10/04/2019 | 10:42:15 I warmly thank the rapporteurs for their worrying and shocking reports, and I also thank all of those who have spoken thus far because I think their speeches show that there is broad agreement, as well as concern, in this Assembly that hate and intolerance have taken on such proportions in sport. However, if we are honest, does that not simply reflect what is going on in our societies? When we look at this phenomenon among sports fans, we also see that there are more and more populist and... 09/04/2019 | 12:06:06 As Chair of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development, I congratulate all the rapporteurs, but especially Ms Jennifer DE TEMMERMAN. She has brought the report down to the local level – to the cities and the villages – where democracy is born. That is where we can and should act. The Friday demonstrations all over Europe show us that young people are not satisfied with how policy is working at parliamentary level. We have these wonderful Sustainable Development Goals... 08/04/2019 | 12:17:49 On behalf of my group, I warmly thank Mr Claude KERN and Ms Boriana ÅBERG. This is the first time I have heard Ms Boriana ÅBERG. First, let me say that elections are not a war. In German, the words may have semantic links but elections are a kind of competition, so we should not talk about a war. On the period under review, I thank the rapporteur and congratulate her, although not in terms of my Parliament where things have gone well and we have witnessed a small miracle in this time: in... 25/01/2019 | 11:45:16 When the President appears on a Friday, we know that our intensive week is coming to an end. The Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group welcomes the report. I thank the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights for its work. The previous report – I think it was by Mr Jordi XUCLÀ – had reverberations in my country and others where the CPT report recommendations are immediately followed up. Mr Akif Çağatay KILIÇ's amendment relates to the publication of the previous CPT report. I simply say... 24/01/2019 | 19:34:10 I agree completely with what Mr Damien THIÉRY said. Equality and non-discrimination are human rights. I thank the rapporteur very much indeed. We have had some very animated discussions on this matter in the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media. If you look at how a state or a society deals with its national minorities, you can get a very clear idea of exactly what the situation is regarding democracy and social equality in the country. All our societies have minorities and... 24/01/2019 | 17:09:28 When progress reports come before the Assembly, they are a wonderful example of what our monitoring procedure does and of the work done by the rapporteur through concerted efforts over hours and days to conduct monitoring procedures, periodic reviews, and the post-monitoring process. Of course, we instituted various reforms a couple of years ago – we do not have a two-tier system, with some states being subject to monitoring and others, the old ones, not. In the meantime, Germany, Finland... 23/01/2019 | 17:41:12 I thank the rapporteur for the recommendation and the report, which comes at the perfect moment; it is particularly appropriate during the time of the Finnish presidency. The various new terminologies involved are new to me as well. We live in a digital world. We have already seen specific problems coming to the fore, as well as that digital rift – that chasm – between cities and rural areas and between the young and the old. It is a double challenge. On the one hand is the issue of education... 23/01/2019 | 10:42:13 I want to start where the previous speaker left off. He was reporting on the disastrous state of the media in Turkey. In that context, I remind you that this report is the last report of Ms Gülsün BİLGEHAN – a very able colleague, who was a journalist and had first-hand experience of the situation in the country. This is one of the most important issues that we have to address. When we go out to observe elections, we must also look at the media landscape and assess whether there is a free... 21/01/2019 | 12:33:34 On behalf of my group, I would like to pay my best respects to you, Madam President. It is wonderful that you have been elected President and we are very lucky to have you here once again. With regard to the Progress Report and the various observations of elections, a referendum also took place in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the last few months. Of course, the politicians were invited to take responsibility with regard to the referendum and whether it would be a consultative...