25/06/2026 | 16:41:16 Thank you, Chair. I am proud to have the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe today. Transnational repression is one of the defining challenges facing democracies. As modern conflict moves increasingly into the grey zone, Europe’s adversaries continue to act with impunity to target their critics given sanctuary across Europe. It has not gone unnoticed. Just nine days ago the European Parliament passed a motion calling for a zero-tolerance... 24/06/2026 | 19:10:19 Thank you, Chair. My thanks to Ms Larysa BILOZIR for bringing this very relevant report. I saw the minefields she spoke of when I visited Kherson a few weeks ago. Hundreds of sticks marking out Russian mines making vast swathes of some of the best farmland in the world unusable. That is hybrid warfare on food security. And let’s be clear; food security is national security. When families cannot afford healthy food, that is a social crisis. When farmers cannot make a living, that is an... 24/06/2026 | 17:50:34 Thank you Chair and my thanks to the co-Rapporteurs for their comprehensive and very timely report which I fully support. It illustrates what we all know and I have to say fear, that Georgia is not just facing a political crisis, but a democratic emergency. The Georgian people have repeatedly shown where they want their country to go. They want a European future. They want democracy, the rule of law, free elections and accountable institutions. Yet the Georgian Dream government has chosen a... 22/06/2026 | 17:21:28 Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity to speak about this. I was proud to serve as part of the Assembly's election observation mission in Hungary. And my thanks go to Mr Pablo HISPÁN for leading the mission so ably. In Budapest, alongside colleagues from across Europe, I saw something powerful: long queues, busy polling stations and citizens determined to use their vote. In some areas, turnout was extraordinary. The atmosphere in many polling stations was positive and even hopeful. I was... 02/10/2025 | 17:09:22 Thank you, Mister President. Friends, this report arrives not a moment too soon. Across our continent, faith in political parties is crumbling. Membership rolls are emptying. Foreign cash and online lies poison our debates. Populists feast on public cynicism. But here's the truth – democracy simply cannot work without robust, transparent politics. This resolution makes the case clearly: parties aren't museum pieces gathering dust. They're the living, breathing institutions that connect... 01/10/2025 | 19:10:20 Thank you, Chair. This is a decisive moment. The Council of Europe was absolutely right to expel the Russian Federation – but that cannot be where our responsibility ends. In the last decade, we have witnessed the assassinations of Alexei NAVALNY and Boris NEMTSOV. We've seen opposition politicians locked away, threatened and intimidated. Every day brings fresh reports of journalists silenced, activists disappeared. This is the brutal cost of standing up to Vladimir PUTIN's regime. Yet still... 01/10/2025 | 13:02:56 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Serbia stands at a crossroads – and frankly, it's heading in the wrong direction. For ten months now, Serbian citizens have taken to the streets. Students leading the charge, demanding justice, transparency, and an end to the corruption corroding their country. The spark was the tragedy in Novi Sad – sixteen people killed when a railway station roof collapsed, a roof that had supposedly just been renovated. That disaster laid bare the rotten... 10/04/2025 | 11:31:58 Today, Georgia finds itself at a crossroads, not between East and West, but between democracy and authoritarianism. What was once a beacon of democratic hope in the region is now veering dangerously off course. The 2024 elections, which should have been an opportunity to reaffirm Georgia's democratic commitments, have instead revealed a stark and troubling truth. The Georgian Dream (GD) government is systematically dismantling the very democracy it claims to uphold. The evidence is not vague... 09/04/2025 | 17:42:53 Thank you, Chairman. Over 3 years have passed since Mr Vladimir PUTIN launched his brutal and illegal war against Ukraine. 3 years of death and destruction, displacement, and despair. And yet 3 years marked too by the extraordinary courage and unshakable resolve of the Ukrainian people. Each day, Ukrainians show the world what it means to stand for democracy, sovereignty, and the rule of law, not only for themselves, but for all of us. They resist not because it is easy, but because it is... 08/04/2025 | 16:19:58 European democracy faces an insidious and escalating threat from foreign interference. From election-meddling to cyber attacks, authoritarian regimes exploit our openness and seek to undermine from within. These threats are not abstract. Russia has interfered across Europe and flooded social media with disinformation. The influence of Russian State has been overt in recent elections in Moldova and Romania and elsewhere. We ignore it at our peril. We have seen where it can lead with Russia's...