30/01/2020 | 10:25:18 Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, IS fighters have brutally slaughtered people of other faiths in Iraq and Syria for years, and spread terror in the name of the Islamic State. Women have also taken part in this and have clearly committed unconditional murder for their faith in Islam. There were professional killers and terrorists at work. And now, the motion demands that we should take back these tested murderers in our countries. Ladies and gentlemen, what this motion represents is a... 28/01/2020 | 18:11:51 The attack on free journalism, ladies and gentlemen, we all agree that it is an attack on freedom of expression and, therefore, an attack on democracy, no doubt about that. The attacks are often less physical these days, instead, such attacks are often much more subtle. Journalists follow the given spectrum of opinion, because opinions are persecuted. Exactly as it is also shown in the report, under point six, we have heard about legislations being enacted to clamp down on them. For example... 28/01/2020 | 10:20:35 I am pleased to speak here on behalf of the EC, the European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance, and of course we must say quite clearly that the rule of law must be guaranteed and that the separation of powers must be ensured. We are also aware of the fact that after the end of the communist regime, Poland did not change its justice system from the ground up. This was a mistake in terms of time, but also in terms of content. At the moment Poland, as a sovereign state, is in the... 03/10/2019 | 19:20:10 With pleasure. By the way, here again, the compassionate emphasis, in the case of the affected population, is represented. I understand that completely. I did not say that we should not help —that would be the wrong impression. Here it is simply a matter of not being able to completely reject the individual responsibility of the states for their own population. If you say that is the case, then you are actually taking over part of the government. Here, the next application is actually about... 03/10/2019 | 19:11:28 Reference is made to the Kampala resolution of the African states. Ladies and gentlemen, Here again, the same problem: there is not, not at all, a differentiation between environmental problems and overpopulation. That is precisely the problem. With this resolution, if adopted in its entirety, we assume the responsibility that should be taken by the African States. Therefore, this reference cannot, and must not, be endorsed, this Kampala resolution, as a basis for us. We cannot take the... 03/10/2019 | 19:02:41 Yes, may I speak? The point of this amendment is quite clearly that we have no definition of what climate refugees are. But the problem is precisely that this overpopulation — as Mr HAU said just now — is actually fighting for this fertile land. Ladies and gentlemen, If, in Africa, as an example, the population will double within 30 years — at the latest 30 years — you will, of course, have to fight for fertile land. Incidentally, it's not just about Africa. It is also the Arab states, which... 03/10/2019 | 18:38:08 Ladies and gentlemen, The resolution is well meant, but "well meant" is often the exact opposite of good, because facts are ignored. In the case of this resolution, four main points are ignored: Firstly, it declares a legal status for climate refugees, without a definition of who is actually a climate refugee and how they can achieve this status; it is completely missing. This opens the door completely to abuse. We have now learned in the Committee that, apparently this year, it has been said... 24/06/2019 | 19:50:41 Ladies and gentlemen, The discussion is largely going in the wrong direction. The fact is that Russia's quasi expulsion from the Council of Europe is a wrong decision. With the expulsion of Russia from the Council of Europe, the correction of the annexation of the Crimea was never achievable. That was just the wrong thing to do. So this is all about correcting the use of wrong means. Means that, first and foremost, harm us here in the Council of Europe. Because the primary means of the... 23/01/2019 | 17:57:25 The draft before us looks very promising indeed. We talk in paragraph 5 of the resolution about freedom of opinion and freedom of information, both of which are very necessary, while in paragraph 6 we talk about protection against abuse of the Internet. I think we all realise that we need protection against malware, and we need a ban on the use of child pornography – I think we would all agree that these things need to be criminalised – but what about hate speech? Where is there a clear... 22/01/2019 | 19:25:47 Today, we heard the presentation of the Foreign Minister of Finland, who said clearly that human rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the rule of law and equality between men and women are very important to him, and we heard once again – with great joy, of course – about the founding principles of this Assembly. This very good report on the Cairo Declaration’s compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights makes it clear that certain signatories to the Convention fall...