27/01/2021 | 16:59:45 Thank you, Madam President. Colleagues, As already mentioned, on 17 January 2021, as soon as he returned to Russia, Alexei Navalny was arrested by the Russian authorities, along with the people waiting for him on his arrival. The following day, heard without his lawyer at an impromptu hearing at the police station, he was sentenced to 30 days' detention. The Russian authorities are relying on court decisions which the European Court of Human Rights has described as arbitrary, politically... 25/01/2021 | 18:01:38 Thank you, Mister President, Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to thank our rapporteur, Mr Michael Aastrup JENSEN, for this report, which takes stock of the Monitoring Committee's activities in the year 2020. As has already been mentioned, it is certainly a very special year, both for the Monitoring Committee and for our Assembly as a whole. However, it is certain that, in terms of monitoring, the impossibility of travelling directly to the States concerned has been a real difficulty in... 31/01/2020 | 11:04:44 Thank you, Mr President. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank our colleague Mr Frithjof SCHMIDT for the quality of his report. I share his concerns about the extent of information pollution in our digital and connected world, but also about the risks this poses to our democracies. I am, of course, mindful of some of the large-scale disinformation campaigns that may have been carried out in Europe, but also in the United States, for example. Our Assembly has already carried out work on these... 29/01/2020 | 17:13:43 Thank you, President. Dear colleagues, I would like to thank our colleague Mr Frank SCHWABE for the quality of his very comprehensive report on the complimentary joint procedure between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly in the case of a serious violation by a member state of its statutory obligations. I would like in particular to welcome the proposals he makes with regards to the internal procedure in our Assembly with the view to triggering a joint procedure. I... 04/10/2019 | 11:41:28 Madam President, Dear colleagues, Labour migration from Eastern European countries to Western European countries has a significant impact and I thank our rapporteur for exploring this complex and sensitive subject. The demographic, social and economic consequences for the countries of departure are particularly important. Indeed, these migrations have a significant impact on the population, especially in rural areas. In some of these countries, we can go through "ghost towns", and the... 10/04/2019 | 11:14:03 The two excellent reports presented to us today show clearly how intolerance has been rising in our European societies, in politics as in sport. We must take very strong action against hateful comments designed to discriminate against certain groups. First, hate speech in politics jeopardises social cohesion. It demeans parts of the population and encourages discrimination, which is of course against our values. In Denmark for instance, one proposal was made to impose stricter sanctions for... 09/04/2019 | 11:19:12 As our colleagues Ms Jennifer DE TEMMERMAN and Mr Adão SILVA rightly point out in their excellent reports, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, is ambitious. The challenges must be dealt with in a consistent, well-balanced context, in solidarity with countries, populations and generations. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are not binding. These commitments must be integrated locally and nationally. In 2016, France undertook a... 08/04/2019 | 12:10:07 I thank all the members of the delegation and our administrative staff who attended the pre-electoral mission and the election observation mission in the Republic of Moldova for the excellent spirit that prevailed. I also thank the staff of the Council of Europe office in Chișinău and the authorities in the Republic of Moldova for their excellent co-operation. Since 1994, the Parliamentary Assembly has observed all elections in the Republic of Moldova, so the logic is one of continuity in co... 22/01/2019 | 10:54:31 The report on the necessary update of the Code of Good Practice on Referendums by the Venice Commission is particularly thorough and well documented. It has the great advantage of putting forward specific and welcome proposals for improvements. Referendums have an ambivalent reputation. They tend to be implemented or brought in for a constitutional change or to deal with controversial questions, but they can also be used as a political instrument to help incumbent powers. Depending on the...