21/04/2021 | 16:48:27 Thank you very much. Last week we debated about and voted on Ms Thorhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR's report on the situation of the Crimean Tatars. You mentioned the obstacles you have to monitor the human rights situation in Crimea. What must happen for a very well performed human rights evaluation and monitoring can happen and can be performed in Crimea? My second question is on the Istanbul Convention which at the moment is misused as an object of proxy dispute about values ignoring what is its... 21/04/2021 | 12:10:23 Thank you, Mr Chairperson. Viktar Barushka is a political prisoner from Belarus whom I have sponsored, as previous speakers have done for other political prisoners. Viktar is 32 years old, a businessman and he was arrested by the police on 18 October 2020 on his way home after a demonstration on a Sunday when he ran away from the police. He was beaten after his arrest, abused, including being raped with a baton and had to spend 12 days in intensive care afterwards. He, Viktar, is accused of... 20/04/2021 | 15:49:12 Thank you very much, Mr Kimmo KILJUNEN. The ability to collect a state tax for the financing of public services and services of general interest – to collect it without gaps – is an important democratic function of a state. It is also a practical redistribution. Many multinationals in the digital economy earn billions in Europe, but they hardly pay any taxes. For years, Apple has shifted profits from all over Europe to Ireland via subsidiaries, and in some cases paid only 0.005 percent in... 20/04/2021 | 10:43:32 Good morning, Chancellor, Joe Biden is probably right when he says that the U.S. is back on the constructive international stage after four - let us put it diplomatically - after four rather difficult years. The announcement that U.S. foreign policy is to be guided by a human rights-based policy also gives hope, I think, of creating a new axis, a new alliance, a transatlantic alliance, between the U.S., Canada, and Europe in dealing with very many international crises. I'm thinking, for... 19/04/2021 | 19:46:27 Thank you very much, Madam President. When we commemorate later in May this year the liberation of the Austrian concentration camp, Mauthausen, the theme will be "demolished diversity". That was exactly the goal of the Nazi regime to extinguish diversity, to extinguish human beings when they had other beliefs, other origins, other religions, another language or another sexual orientation or gender identity. Yet with its Framework Convention, the Council of Europe builds the foundations for... 19/04/2021 | 12:18:23 Thank you very much. I would like to tackle three issues, starting with the Istanbul Convention. Aleksander POCIEJ already mentioned it, which is really of great concern as I am considering that a kind of proxy war is taken place at the moment and is shaped by mere ideology and intentional misunderstanding of the term "gender". Let me clarify and demystify this concept of gender. To do that, allow me to quote the famous and landmark philosopher David Bowie. I quote: "Gender is between your... 28/01/2021 | 12:57:42 Thank you very much. I would like to applaud Mr Boriss CILEVIČS for this really very, very, good high quality and balanced report on such an important and sensitive issue. It's very important to take a clear standpoint, a clear position against any racial discrimination and racism by law enforcement bodies, and to have a report on such a sensitive topic unanimously adopted in the Committee and without any amendment here in the plenary I think is proof of really high quality work. I want to... 27/01/2021 | 18:25:16 Thank you, Mister Chairman. I would like to say at the outset that my own political roots are in organised civil society. I work closely and a great deal with a number of NGOs at the Austrian, European, and international levels. I find it extremely fruitful to exchange ideas and opinions, especially when we do not always share the same opinion. However, I do not want to be naïve, I am convinced that there is also a dark side of civil society and by that I mean all those who stand outside the... 27/01/2021 | 10:48:44 Mister President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I too would like to thank the rapporteur. I also think the report is quite excellent. I am convinced, however, that it will not be the last. The issue of vaccination will continue to develop globally and we too will have to keep at it and keep looking at how it all works. We all know that we can either defeat this pandemic globally or we cannot defeat it at all, and vaccination nationalism is of course the very last thing we need in a situation like... 26/01/2021 | 17:23:06 Good afternoon, Mister Commissioner. The first question I would like to raise on behalf of my colleague Mr Fourat BEN CHIKHA who is our General Rapporteur on LGBTQI Persons. Governments with undemocratic goals are scapegoating LGBTQI people in order to win majority votes with the effect and aim of weakening the rule of law. How will the European Commission engage with LGBTQI civil society at a national level and draw up the European Commission's rule of law report, and how will you engage...