02/10/2019 | 17:00:03 Madame Chairperson. I want to welcome Mr Rolf Wenzel who has been governing this bank. It's interesting that we have kind of discovered or rediscovered the role and the importance of the European Bank of Development of the Council of Europe. I want to compliment the rapporteur Ms Nicole TRISSE for her work as well as the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development because it has been working for a long time with the Bank, and I heard that the Bank came to the Committee on... 01/10/2019 | 10:51:13 Dear Chairperson, fellow parliamentarians, I too would like to congratulate Mr Mr Sylvain WASERMAN for an excellent report which has touched upon one of the key issues of the whistle-blowers and has underlined the mechanisms that help to protect them: the legal mechanisms. Indeed, strengthening this legal mechanism is paramount, however work should be done on the societal aspect of perceiving the whistle-blowers as heroes. This is something that we should bear in mind for the future and I... 28/06/2019 | 10:44:03 Thank you Mr Chairperson. I also thank the rapporteur Ms BAKOYANNIS for her report. The eight years of Syrian conflict has caused much human suffering. A true human tragedy in a way, that has unfolded before our eyes. This conflict showed that insecurity in one part of the world will undoubtedly affect the other part of the world. This is an interconnected world at the end of the day. I want to underline that my country has closely followed the developments in Syria with a sore in its heart... 27/06/2019 | 11:44:27 Thank you very much. I want to thank Baroness Doreen MASSEY for an excellent report. Such an honest and comprehensive report on such an important issue: children. We all love our children. Children don't have an ethnicity, but I don't like when they are weaponised in this hemicycle for cheap propaganda purposes. But if that's the case, I want to mention that in 2016, when Azerbaijan was attacking Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the first victim was a child, Vaghinak Grigoryan, who was only nine... 26/06/2019 | 18:51:18 Rapporteur OMTZIGT, ladies and gentlemen, honorable Chairperson. At this hemicycle, at our previous session, we have already addressed the question of corruption and it's pervasive effect on democracy and rule of law. In this very hemicycle. I want to thank Mr OMTZIGT for his excellent, precise and honest report, which uncovers a singular yet important chain at the interplay between authoritarianism and corruption. Daphne Caruana's death should not be forgotten. Neither in this hemicycle, nor... 11/04/2019 | 16:31:15 Today we are discussing the most pressing issue, which threatens the very foundations of our democracies. I thank rapporteur Mr Mart van de VEN for his honest and scrupulous work, by which complex money-laundering schemes and the real outreach of organised crime have been exposed. At the same time, I want us to thank those brave investigative journalists who, often at the cost of their life, unfortunately, have uncovered those schemes which routinely penetrate and subvert democratic societies... 09/04/2019 | 11:53:25 I thank the rapporteurs for their excellent work. Since yesterday, the word “synergy” has been recurring. Leaving aside the epistemological shades of this word, one should really delve into understanding how the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to be realised and how this Council’s support for its realisation can be effectively reinforced. The realisation of the 17 SDGs, which range from the eradication of poverty to peace and justice, from quality education and... 23/01/2019 | 18:00:40 I, too, thank Mr Andres HERKEL for his meticulous work on this report, which tackles almost all aspects of the complex relationship between governance of the Internet and human rights. The Internet is seen in the report as a public good. However, it is a neutral one – a neutral ecosystem informed by its own users. In April 2018, the Internet was instrumental in mobilising the Armenian people and bringing about democratic change peacefully. This was noted in Freedom House’s 2019 “Freedom on...