27/06/2019 | 17:24:53 Madame president, Dear colleagues, The fact that the murder of Boris Nemtsov concerns not only Russia, but goes beyond, I believe has two main causes: The first reason is because of who Boris Nemtsov was; a prominent opposition leader, a former Deputy Prime Minister, speaker of the Duma, regional Governor of Nizhny Novgorod. He was a distinguished political personality in the Russian Federation, who was certainly controversial. And of course, there is a Foundation today, based in Bonn, in my... 24/06/2019 | 17:04:41 Madam President, Dear colleagues, Today is the second time we have discussed a draft of the De Sutter report. Last October, we referred this report back to committee because we felt that there was still a need for discussion after all. Not only among us, but also between the institutions of the Council of Europe; between the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Ministers. Let me remind you that we conducted a process of dialogue under the Finnish Presidency of the Committee of Ministers... 11/04/2019 | 17:23:38 The vote is open. Amendment 11 is adopted. We will now proceed to vote on the draft resolution in the report titled “Laundromats: responding to new challenges in the international fight against organised crime, corruption and money laundering”, contained in Document 14847, as amended. The vote is open. The draft resolution in Document 14847, as amended, is adopted, with 57 votes for, 9 against and 5 abstentions. We will now proceed to vote on the draft recommendation contained in Document... 11/04/2019 | 17:08:53 Thank you, Ms Thorhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR. The debate is closed. The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights has presented a draft resolution, to which 17 amendments have been tabled, and a draft recommendation, to which no amendments have been tabled. The amendments will be taken in the order in which they appear in the compendium. I remind members that speeches on amendments are limited to 30 seconds. I understand that the Chairperson of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights... 11/04/2019 | 15:38:31 The sitting is open. I am pleased to announce the winner of the Europe Prize 2019. There were six finalists: Donostia/San Sebastián in Spain, Bamberg in Germany, Bolesławiec in Poland, Issy-les-Moulineaux in France, Izmir in Turkey, and Münster in Germany. The winner of the Europe Prize 2019 is Donostia/San Sebastián in Spain. We offer our congratulations to Donostia/San Sebastián for its engagement with Europe. The first item of business this afternoon is the debate on the report titled... 10/04/2019 | 18:13:56 The German delegation specifically supports the efforts of the Committee of Ministers to avert the looming threat to the institution. That is why we welcome the intensive exchanges by the Committee of Ministers with the Parliamentary Assembly in recent months. I thank Mr Tiny KOX for producing the report we are debating; he has created a sound basis for us. The meeting of the Committee of Ministers in Helsinki will have a broad position from the Parliamentary Assembly that may influence their... 09/04/2019 | 16:46:08 Dear colleagues, this debate and this report are coming at the right time, so I give heartfelt thanks to Madam De Sutter for this excellent report, because both the European Union and the Council of Europe face a new challenge that they have never experienced before. We have seen the success story of the support of the young democracies and the movement towards pluralist democracy, human rights and the rule of law, but we also get the impression that this is a one-way street that can only go... 09/04/2019 | 10:49:31 I send my warmest thanks to both rapporteurs, who have produced very apposite reports. The 2030 Agenda will necessitate far-reaching changes to our economies and societies worldwide, so that we can try to bring two goals together in harmony. We need to eliminate extreme poverty once and for all and to respect the ecological limits of our planet. That concerns not only developing countries but each and every one of us. The former President of Germany, Horst Köhler, was involved in a high... 24/01/2019 | 11:40:00 Let me first thank everyone who participated in this debate for their committed and engaged involvement in the situation and for their kind words on the draft report. Let me reiterate two points that I made at the beginning because they were reflected in some of the contributions. First, the committee deliberately understood the mandate of this report in a more narrow sense. We had to focus on the issue at hand, which was the escalation of tension in the Sea of Azov. We made broader reference... 24/01/2019 | 10:05:56 I thank my colleagues on the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy for entrusting this critical report to me and I extend my warm thanks to the staff of the secretariat of the Committee and my own staff for their assistance in preparing this important report in a short period of time this week. While tensions in the Sea of Azov have been simmering since the Russian Federation illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, the November incident has sparked concern about further...