07/04/2025 | 15:54:19 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Mister Commissioner for Human Rights, In your annual report, you state that we are today on the brink of a precipice, due in particular to a new willingness on the part of a growing number of political leaders to deny rights, reject legal commitments, and renege on treaty obligations. We can see this trend in Georgia, where I have observed and deplored a clear hardening of the regime, which is gradually moving away from the values of the Council of Europe. What is... 30/01/2025 | 11:52:19 Thank you, Madam President. Ladies and gentlemen, Last Sunday, without any suspense, Lukashenko, in power since 1994, announced that he had been re-elected President of Belarus with over 87% of the vote. The man who describes his country as a "brutal democracy" has subjected civil society to unprecedented repression. In fact, there is nothing democratic about the regime in place; this election in no way corresponds to democratic standards, nor does it have any legitimacy. We must express this... 28/01/2025 | 10:59:09 Thank you, Mister President. Mister President of the European Court of Human Rights, Ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I would like to congratulate our colleague Ms Dora BAKOYANNIS on her report, which provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and risks posed by the current upheaval in the international order. The undermining of the rule of law and the rise of nationalism around the world are having terrible consequences. The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost three years... 27/01/2025 | 17:10:34 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, First of all, I would like to thank our colleague Mr Iulian BULAI for his report as head of our delegation during the election observation mission to Georgia, in which I took part last October. I had already expressed my views in June on a draft resolution on the challenges to democracy in Georgia. In my capacity as co-rapporteur on Georgia for the Monitoring Committee, I expressed my concern at the adoption of the law on foreign agents, which... 01/10/2024 | 18:05:58 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Dear colleagues, Nine months after taking the decision to suspend the rights of the Azerbaijani delegation in our Assembly, we meet again to debate the deteriorating situation of human rights, the rule of law and democracy in Azerbaijan. In January, when I was representing the Chairman of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee), I pointed out in the chamber that the Monitoring... 01/10/2024 | 16:29:59 Thank you, Madam President. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank our colleagues Lord Simon RUSSELL and Mr Julian PAHLKE for their very enlightening reports on the tragedies that can befall migrants at the mercy of smugglers. Forced labour, sexual exploitation and death sometimes await migrants who leave their countries at the behest of smugglers who promise them a better life. My country is no stranger to such tragedies, as several migrants have died trying to cross the English Channel... 27/06/2024 | 18:37:01 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, At the spring session, we held a topical debate on the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and on how to prevent further escalation in the Middle East following Iran's attack on Israel. Alas, this session again, the fate of the Israeli hostages and the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip warrant another topical debate. Ten days ago, our colleague Mr Piero FASSINO visited the Middle East and called for "a collective surge of responsibility to... 27/06/2024 | 16:23:54 Thank you, Mr Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, Let's take a step back. First of all, I'd like to thank our colleague Piero FASSINO, who has done an outstanding job on this sensitive subject. For fifty years now, Cyprus has been divided in two: a Turkish part in the north and a Greek part in the south. Following the first conflict in 1963, our colleague's report clearly underlines the dramatic chain of events in 1974: the coup d'état promoted by the military dictatorship in Greece, aimed at... 27/06/2024 | 11:10:51 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, It's my turn to thank you for expressing your different points of view and for your support. I would like to remind you that Georgia already has several laws on the transparency of entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial organisations. So, there was absolutely no urgency or interest in passing a new law. Especially since by 2023, after several visits on our part, we had reached an agreement that this law should be withdrawn once and for all... 27/06/2024 | 10:15:50 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, The adoption of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence in Georgia cannot be seen in isolation from the forthcoming parliamentary elections in that country. Firstly, it goes a long way towards turning the forthcoming elections into a de facto referendum on Georgia's democratic trajectory and its alignment with foreign influence, thus considerably raising the stakes of these elections, as well as polarisation and tensions in the pre...