02 октомври 2019

В Страсбург отбелязаха 70-тата годишнина на Съвета на Европа




На 1 октомври 2019г.- вторник, в Операта в Страсбург беше отбелязана 70-тата годишнина от създаването на Съвета на Европа.

Честването беше планирано за юнската сесия на Асамблеята, но беше отложено поради острите спорове възникнали по време на сесията.

Церемонията е била открита от кмета на Страсбург Ролан Рийс.


Мария Пейчинович-Бурич


Речи са произнесли бившият испански премиер Филипе Гонзалес, Президентът на ПАСЕ Лилиан Мори Паскье, г-жа Мария Пейчинович-Бурич - новоизбраният Генерален секретар на Съвета на Европа  и Президентът на Европейския съд по правата на човека Линос-Александер Сичилианос.

Лилиан Мори Паскье


От международната космическа станция видео-обръщение е направил космонавтът Лука Пармитано.

Излъчено е било и видео-поздравление от Генералния Секретар на ООН Антонио Гутереш.

Музикулна интерлюдия е изпълнил Страсбургския филхармоничен оркестър, а също победителят в песенното състезание Евровизия 2019г. Дънкан Лоренс е изпълнил свой музикален поздрав.

Страсбургският филхармоничен оркестър



Най-голям интерес е предизвикало обръщението на Президента на Френската Република Еманюел Макрон, който е призовал събралите се гости да се обърнат с лице към предизвикателствата с оптимизъм и смелост опирайки се на дългогодишната традиция на европейската култура, демокрация и иновация.

 
Еманюел Макрон


В края на церемонията са били връчени наградите на Младежкия конкурс за есе и фотография посветени на тази годишнина.



Фотографиите са от сайта на Съвета на Европа




На другия ден - 3 октомри 2019г. в пленарната зала на ПАСЕ, на кратка церемония, всеки от лидерите на партийните  групи произнесе реч по повод 70-тата годишнина на Съвета на Европа.

 

Celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe


3 October 2019 at 11: 45

Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER

Switzerland, SOC, President of the Assembly 

As announced, we now move to the 70th anniversary ceremony of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
I ask the group leaders to join the seats allocated to them in the hemicycle.
Ladies and gentlemen,
On Tuesday we held the official ceremony to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe. It was a particularly moving moment for all of us: we can and must be proud of what we have accomplished during these 70 years. And we want to celebrate this anniversary also in this place. On the basis of this knowledge and experience, we are determined to respond as effectively as possible to the new challenges that Human Rights, democracy and the Rule of Law face on our continent.
What strengthens us in this conviction? This is undoubtedly the uniqueness of our Organization, in particular, its institutional architecture.
We have, on the one hand, a Committee of Ministers, representing the governments of our Member States and, on the other hand, a Parliamentary Assembly which brings together democratically elected parliamentarians and thus reflects diversity and pluralist composition of our societies.
This structure is unheard of among multilateral organizations. The other international parliamentary assemblies have a different role and –above all– functions different from those of ours, which are defined both by the Statute of the Council of Europe and by our conventions, in particular by the European Convention on Human Rights.
It is thanks to this unique institutional balance that governments and parliaments have a shared responsibility to preserve Europe's democratic principles and the fundamental rights and freedoms of all.
I wish today, during this ceremony, to emphasize the role that the Assembly has played in the construction of Europe because, as a place for debate, meetings and openness, our Assembly has greatly influenced the genesis of the European project, allowing it to develop and flourish.
For that, I propose to go back in time and to travel together in the history of our Organization, through statements and speeches of the men and women who carried the European project, knowing that many of these visionary declarations were pronounced in this same hemicycle.
[Audio recording: Victor Hugo]
"A day will come when you, France; you, Russia; you, Italy; you, England; you, Germany; you, all the nations of the continent, without losing your distinct qualities and your glorious individuality, you will merge into a higher unity and you will constitute the European fraternity ".
A century after Victor Hugo formulated these reflections, Sir Winston Churchill will present in Zurich in 1946 his vision of the reunification of the European continent: the United States of Europe. He will then call for the formation of a Council of Europe.
[Video screening: Winston Launch Churchill]
"We need to build something like the United States of Europe. (...) In view of this imperious task, France and Germany must reconcile; Great Britain, the Commonwealth of British Nations, the mighty America, and, I hope, Soviet Russia - because everything would be solved - must be the friends and protectors of the new Europe and defend its right to life. and prosperity. And it is in this spirit that I say to you: forward, Europe! "
On May 5, 1949, the Treaty of London, signed by ten founding countries, ratified the creation of the Council of Europe with, in point of view, the achievement of a closer union between its members.
For Winston Churchill, one of the main reasons for founding the Assembly was to associate a free and democratic Germany with Western democracies. It will be done in 1950. Very soon, the other democracies will join our Organization. In 1977, Spain will become the 20th member, completing the Western table.
[Video screening: King of Spain]
"In saluting this House, I can not forget the decisive role it played in the accession of Spain, a role which, in a certain way, led it to deviate from its uses to value its faith and hope in the process of transition to democracy in Spain ".
But the Iron Curtain will continue to separate long "millions of homes whose hearts are with us", as evoked by Winston Churchill right here in 1949. Forty years later, the first milestones will finally be planted to allow the Council to Europe –with the help of our Assembly– to achieve what was its vocation: to bring together all the parliamentary democracies of the Old Continent.
[Video screening: Catherine LALUMIÈRE]
"We will try, together, to live up to the democratic ideal of those who gave birth to the Council of Europe... We will also try to reach out, to help all those who ask us to assert with force the superiority of right and freedom and call us to open the door for them, I was going to say, to open their arms."
[Video screening: Mikhail Gorbachev]
"During meetings recently held with European leaders, the architecture of the common house and the techniques of its construction and even its furnishings were discussed. The talks on this subject in Moscow and Paris, with President François Mitterrand, have been fruitful. (...). Nevertheless, even today, I do not pretend to have in my pocket a project ready for this house. "
The Council of Europe and its Assembly take note of the fact that European reunification is no longer a utopia. Events are rushing towards the end of 1989, and Europeans from Eastern and Western Europe are finally seeing the "unity of the continent", to which everyone has aspired. The founding dream can finally be realized.
[Video screening: François Mitterrand]
"On the 40th anniversary of your Organization, you had just welcomed a 23rd state, Finland. Democratic Europe was reborn. She seemed then complete, and yet our joy could not be complete, for there was the other Europe. I remember having expressed our refusal to resign ourselves to this fracture. "
[Video screening: Helmut Kohl]
"What is important to me is that in the twenty-first century we can live together in peace and freedom and leave the barbarity behind us forever. (...) To maintain peace, we must make the path to a united Europe irreversible. (...) Our European house must be able to withstand bad weather and be covered by a solid roof; it will have to allow all the peoples of Europe to lodge at their convenience. "
[Video screening: Václav Havel]
"Without dreaming of a better Europe, we will never build a better Europe. I do not see the twelve stars of your emblem as the expression of the proud conviction that the Council of Europe will build heaven on earth. There will never be paradise on earth. For me, these twelve stars mean that we could live better on earth if we dared, from time to time, to look up at the stars. "



My dear colleagues,
Dear friends, dear friends,
We have just re-lived some of the highlights of our Organization's history.
During the past 70 years, our Assembly has always been the driving force behind the process of European unification, the construction of our common home.
Today, its role is all the more important in this process, as a forum for dialogue and political debate at the level of Greater Europe, as emphasized yesterday the President of the French Republic, Mr. Emmanuel MACRON. I would like, in this context, to thank you all for your commitment to our Assembly: Europe needs your energy, your enthusiasm and your competence to meet the challenges that human rights are facing in Europe. I would also like to express our gratitude to the staff of the Council of Europe and more particularly to the staff of the secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly. Their expertise, commitment and loyalty to the service of our Organization and our values are absolutely essential to the continuation of our activities.
Dear friends, dear friends,
We are proud today of our common home, yet we all know that, despite solid foundations, it is today weakened by the erosion of values that are our foundations. A wave of division is blowing again on the continent, weakening mutual trust between the member states. Solidarity and cooperation give way to withdrawal and fear of others. The specter of nationalist ideology comes back to haunt and contaminate the minds. Pluralism and dialogue in society increasingly come up against authoritarian tendencies.
How to resist these trends?
Let us always remember our common history and the exploits we have accomplished: despite the hardships that have marked the years, we have continually overcome them.
Seventy years ago, after two devastating world wars, the peoples of Europe rose to the challenge of rebuilding peace.
Faced with a deep crisis of values, these women and men, with their courage and determination, found the moral compass to guide their action: Human rights, freedom and democracy, justice and Rule of law.
Today, we must live up to their courage and vision.
Today, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe, we have the opportunity to give a new political impetus to our Organization in order to continue to defend together the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Europeans who live in our common home. I am convinced that our Assembly has all the assets to meet this challenge and I count on each and every one of you to work in this direction.
Thank you.
And I now give the floor to Mrs Marija PEJČINOVIĆ-BURIĆ, Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

Marija Pejčinović Burić

Council of Europe Secretary General 

Merci, Madame la Président,
Dear friends,
After 70 years, the Council of Europe is our continent’s leading human rights organisation. We have a common legal space in which common standards are agreed and applied. And this greater unity, this unprecedented degree of co-operation, has created a place for lasting peace. 
The European Convention and the European Social Charter are the reference point from which the rights of Europeans emanate. These are the basis of our wide range of legal instruments that defend and promote human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
On our 70th anniversary, we are right to reflect on the way in which all of this has transformed the lives of people who live throughout our 47 member states. But we should also see our achievements as a signpost for the work that we must do.
May’s Ministerial Session in Helsinki made clear its determination to move forward, finding new solutions to emerging issues on the basis of our shared values.
Artificial intelligence, human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation, and the more effective application of social rights: all of these require new thinking and work that has already begun.
Dear friends,
Our organisation owes its success to the dedication of those who work within it and who participate in the work of its organs and institutions.
This goes for the extraordinary, talented and professional staff at its service. This also applies to parliamentarians who have also made this deliberate choice to become part of the Council of Europe's mission.
The contribution of this parliamentary assembly will remain decisive for our future achievements. I'm not talking just about the debates you hold, the reports you write, and the checks and balances you conduct, no matter how important they are. I also want to talk about your ability to support and carry out the development of new instruments, as these are key to our success.
This organisation gave rise to the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and a few years earlier the initial proposal for a collective complaints procedure for the European Social Charter.
These texts and many others testify to your commitment and your ability.
Dear friends, when the Council of Europe was set up, one of the questions was whether this organisation should be intergovernmental or interparliamentary. The answer was to agree that it should be both at the same time, as indicated in our statute. This decision was the right one.
The cause of human rights, democracy and the rule of law is a cause that should be a source of unity and not of divisions. By building bridges between governments and parliamentarians, we are getting much better results.
Our unity has been our strength over the past 70 years.
This must remain the case as we prepare for the challenges ahead.
Thank you very much

Mr Aleksander POCIEJ

Poland, EPP/CD, Chairperson of the group 

Madam President,
Madam Secretary General,
When you throw a stone into the mountain, you can not predict whether it will sink noiselessly into the snow or if, by disturbing the silence and the fragile immobility of the sleeping forces, it will be the beginning of an avalanche.
The London Act of May 1949, using the words of Jacques Chirac, was a beginning of a new history in Europe.
Seventy years ago, in a destroyed-by-a-terrible war Europe, the great minds built a new order based on peace, democracy, and liberal economies. From today's perspective, the project implemented by 47 countries in Europe can be assessed as an avalanche of success. High standards of human rights pushed by the Council from the beginning have become a model for subsequent countries joining it.
In the 90s, for all countries that were suffering under the occupation of the Soviet Union, after years of trampling morals, human rights, and democracy, the system of values — based on ideas of enlightenment and the Christian values — was a compass of conduct, a recipe for democracy and the rule of law. At the time of its inception, the death penalty applied in most Council of Europe member states.
In this regard, the impossible has been accomplished. Forcing the abolition of the death penalty through nearly the entire Europe is of historical merit and a reason to be proud of the Council. The European Court of Human Rights directly affects the legislation of individual European countries, leading to the harmonisation of values. Monitoring democracy in the member countries is a great merit of our parliamentarians.
The merit of the Venice Commission cannot be overestimated, which I myself as a Polish citizen and parliamentarian, unfortunately, can testify to. The Jubilee is always a reason to celebrate, but this 70th anniversary was associated with a serious financial crisis that posed a threat to the functioning of the Council and its institutions. The absence of the majority of the Eastern delegation here today is proof of a deep fracture in the Assembly.
We must strongly work to change it. We expect the new Secretary General not only to protect human rights and democratic order but also to rebuild the unity of the assembly and create the new Council of Europe structure that will not allow this venerable institution to be under financial threat anymore.
Thank you very much.

Mr Frank SCHWABE

Germany, Chairperson of the SOC 
Madam President,
Secretary-General,
Dear judges,
Human rights defenders,
Staff of this great organisation,
Dear Colleagues.
"It happened, therefore it can happen again." This is a quote from Primo Levi, an Italian writer and survivor of the Holocaust. "It happened, therefore it can happen again." That was the motivation for a project of school pupils in my constituency, Waltrop. The title of the project was "Alertness Project." When I sat there and was introduced to the project, I realised once again why this organisation really exists; why it was founded 70 years ago.
It was the result of two world wars and the German Holocaust. It was to say never again: we never want to experience such a thing again, we want to place human dignity at the centre of European politics. There were many phases in the 70 years of this organisation. Today is the day of German unity, for example, one of the phases. We have this morning seen some of the earlier phases that made up these 70 years. But we are probably entering a new, second phase, for this organisation, because in the last 60 or 70 years almost all countries have become members of the Council of Europe in order to achieve more democracy, more human rights and further develop their rule of law with the support of the Council of Europe. But unfortunately we have seen a counter-tendency in recent years. A growing number member states that are questioning the Council of Europe, and that challenges us to provide new answers and to work all the more persistently.
We are in the process of developing a new mechanism for how we deal with states that do not abide by the rules and violate fundamental values of democracy. We have to tackle the issue of corruption. We have got started on this, but we are not finished yet. We have to organise our finances, as has just been mentioned, so that we also finance this organisation correctly. Zero Nominal Growth when it comes to human rights can not exist. We have to make this loud and clear to our national governments.
Dear colleagues,
It is an absolute privilege to be a member of this Parliamentary Assembly. Through this and all other institutions of this organisation, we have the mission to protect 820 million people, no matter what their nationality. Everyone is deemed to equal in the European Convention on Human Rights. And I encourage us to resist the temptation to reflect what our national governments are discussing. We have a series of forums for debate: there is the Committee of Ministers, where national governments can discuss. The European Convention on Human Rights does not distinguish between French and Germans, between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, between Ukrainians and Russians, but it is all the same before this European Convention on Human Rights.
Finally, I want to thank the judges for their fantastic work. The court is at the heart of this organisation and it is our holy grail. We must do out utmost to defend this institution. I want to thank the courageous human rights defenders who are often here in the corridors and whom we do not value, I believe. They run many risks, including to their own life, freedom and their own integrity for human rights. We must do everything possible to protect these people.
I would like to thank, like the President, the staff and officials of this great organisation; without them, we would all be nothing.
If you want to get a picture of this and have not yet done so, you should just go up to the sixth floor. You'll see the posters, the stickers and the pictures that highlight the commitment and empathy of the staff and their great competence.
I would like to close with Primo Levi, with whom I also started. I think his words depict an excellent picture of the future of our organisation. Primo Levi also said: "The aims of life are the best defence against death." What better metaphor could be used on the Council of Europe's 70th Birthday.

Mr Hendrik DAEMS

Belgium, Chairperson of ALDE 

You know, this morning I had a nice speech.
But, Madam President, Madam Secretary General, I began to think about what the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is in fact.
There are three keywords in there. There is a word that is "assembly": it means to be together, all together, doing something together. There is also the word "parliament". There, it's easy in French, the word "parler" means "to speak", "dialogue".
On the other hand, when I put it in English, it becomes quite another thing: when we had parties that were in conflict, in English, we said "let's parley", which means "solve a conflict".
So parliament is not just about talking, it's not just about dialogue, it's about solving the problems of the Assembly, all together.
But there is more. I also started to think about Europe. What is Europe? We could go back into history and say where does the word come from? But basically it comes from Arabic, I don't know if you know that. It's an Assyrian word, which basically means that's the place where the sun goes down. We translated that into the West. Now that depends on where you stand, because if you're standing in the Philippines, Strasbourg is not exactly the West, I mean you have to pass by many countries, which is why, I dare to say that, we should leave a bit this concept of West. By the way, if you go from Porto to Vladivostok how can you say about western or eastern, only talk about the West, you cannot.
And so I was started to think about is there something like European identity? What a difficult and dangerous word, "identity". I think there is. I think there is something like European identity, only, it is basically defined by unity in diversity. So it's not normative, it's not that I have an identity that you have to follow. No, it's unity in diversity. And when I come back to what Churchill said, united states of Europe, I got to thinking that states have borders, but values do not have borders. And so basically when we're talking about Europe, we're not talking about countries, we are talking about values, that is what we are talking about. We talk about dignity. Basically, we're talking about equality. We're talking about liberty, dignité, égalité, liberté. That is what we are talking about and that is something that we all, in this house, should be defending, should value, should basically uphold, all of us.
This is why Madam President, Madam Secretary General, all colleagues, I've got this thinking that basically the Council of Europe, it's not some kind of the united states of Europe. It is not. That might be the European Union, something else, my feeling, it's not the Council of Europe, my feeling is that this house, this temple of democracy, basically is the Council of the Europeans; because again, states have borders, values do not. And so when someone would ask me outside or inside, who are you? What are you? I would tend to answer, well, "I'm a European". And my wish for the future will be when any one of you would get the same question, I would really hope that you would answer, "me too, I'm a European, I also am a European". 
Thank you. 

Mr Ian LIDDELL-GRAINGER

United Kingdom, Chairperson of the EC 

Well colleagues, thank you very much indeed.
It was quite surreal, just when you were speaking, Madame President, to see Sir Winston CHURCHILL, standing then, and you paraphrased what he said, because he did speak rather long-windedly. And, basically what he said is, after a generation of terrible wars, we had a chance to set ourselves above that, and to bring Europe, which had been at war for a thousand years, together.
And that's what this place is about. This is — you've already heard from three of my co-presidents, and you will hear from Tiny after me — we should be proud of what the people before us did, from all countries of Europe, because they had an aspiration, because most of them had suffered terribly in two world wars. They understood what was necessary to bring Europe together. And that challenge is now the challenge that we face as a generation that has never known a war — not of that scale.
Yet, here we are in 2019, where we have countries boycotting the Council of Europe. We have countries who are not paying the money they should to the Council of Europe. We have uncertainty — as Rick put very eloquently — across Europe, as to what the role of Europe and where we are going in Europe.
I stand before you as a Brit; we have one or two local difficulties over Europe. And that is our problem. We were here to unite, to democracy, human rights, culture. So much of what we believe in. I'm fairly new to the Council of Europe — and my colleague Tiny here has been here twice as long as I have — but understands the ramifications of where we are heading in the future.
No organisation, no matter how good or bad it is, has a right to exist anymore. We were superseded in many ways by the UN and other organisations. We do have brilliant abilities here. The European Development Bank — a lot of you may be sitting in here going, "What on earth is he talking about?" — it has €25 billion on the funds. It does an enormous amount of good work. A huge amount of good work. And it is a, probably, a shining example of European integration as to what we can do with money that we get from our government, channelled in a different way.
But, yet again, — I will say to you this — if you look at the way we operate, as an organisation, we haven't greatly changed since the 1950s. Our predecessors, in that time, would recognise a lot of the stuff we do. And the questions I would ask to you, Madame Secretary General and you Madame President, is this: we need to modernise, we need to look to the future, we need to compete — not physically, obviously — with other organisations.
I've just come back from Uganda where I was at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference with 58 countries. We spent our time talking about how can we better, where do we put our money? Britain alone gives nearly £13 billion in overseas aid. Many other countries do the same, and they're phenomenally generous.
Now, why are we not tapping into that? And I would ask you — and I will leave you this — do we do too many reports that nobody reads? Are our reports intellectually rigorous enough to stand what is now the international norm? Are we too much of our time looking at our tummy buttons and talking to ourselves?
The 70th anniversary, and Monsieur MACRON stood in this place a couple of days ago, was not reported across Europe, as far as I can make out. In France, they're very pleased — so I was told — that there was a 70th anniversary. Unfortunately, it was China, not us. So, therefore, our challenge is the challenge of taking us forward to be — dare I say it — relevant in the 21st century and that is up to all of us.
Our failure is countries boycotting. Our failure is money not being paid. Our failure is not being listened to by the countries of Europe and that is the challenge we will face over the next generation. It won't be us that has to finally, probably, make that decision. But it should be us that leads the charge for the future of the Council of Europe, because if we don't, in 70 years' time I worry where we will be.
But I have faith, I have conviction and I have an ability to think that yes, together, as parliamentarians, as people who make this place what it is, that we together will lead us to a place we've got to get to. And I say that because a lot of citizens of Europe will depend on us. We fail, we fail them. We succeed, they will have our protection and they should always have our protection. We are parliamentarians, we understand elections, we understand people and we should use that as the basis of our future.
Thank you very much indeed.

Mr Tiny KOX

Netherlands, Chairperson of the UEL 
Madam President, Madam Secretary General, ambassadors, dear colleagues.
It is inspiring for me to see how we are here together in this hemicycle, where we are allowed because our governments and our parliaments signed and ratified, at a certain moment, the Statute of the Council of Europe and European Convention of Human Rights.
To be here is not for free. It comes with obligations. According to the Statute, the goal of the Council of Europe is to bring greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising our ideas and principles. Principles of the rule of law, and of the enjoyment by all persons of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as to ensure economic and social progress in all our member states. That is written in our Statute. Membership obliges all member states to contribute to this greater European Union, says the Statute.
The fundamental rights and freedoms of which the Statute speaks have been formulated in the European Convention of Human Rights, and are under the oversight of our European Court of Human Rights, which we have granted the right to make binding verdicts in cases brought before the Court. By citizens from Vladivostok to Reykjavik, from the North Pole to the Mediterranean, this Council of Europe is a unique construction.
Madame President, Madame Secretary General, we politicians, we are able to understand the uniqueness of this Council of Europe and the challenging promise it is to all our citizens to have a better and a safer life. But we as politicians are also aware that it's far more easy to promise than to deliver. In spite of the commitment to greater unity in Europe, to the benefit of our citizens, we often see greater divide, to the detriment of our citizens. In spite of the binding obligations for all member states to respect the fundamental freedoms and rights of our citizens, we far too often see these rights violated and these freedoms taken away from our citizens by all member states. We have to be fair. We politicians too often fail to deliver on the promises that we made to our citizens. We should feel responsible for that.
Madame President, Madame Secretary General, if we want seven years after the birth of this Council of Europe to still work on greater unity between our 47 member states, we have to accelerate our efforts to become more effective and more inspiring, as the colleagues already said.
We have a great acquis of over 200 conventions. Many instruments and organs, and a possibility to develop new conventions, to make existing conventions better, and make new agreements and instruments. We are not empty-handed in the Council of Europe. By adopting last April a resolution and a recommendation on the main challenges for the future, we gave ourselves as an Assembly, a clear but demanding roadmap for the coming years. That now, while celebrating our 70th anniversary, obliges us once again to act in line with these decisions we took and work even harder for the greater European unity in the future in order to promote and protect the rule of the law and the fundamental rights and freedoms of our citizens.
Our Council of Europe has a great past. I had the chance during the past six years to study it. And I have seen, in how many member states, the Council of Europe, its efforts, its conventions, it has really helped to make life better for our citizens. It is not often in the newspapers. But, if the only goal is to be in the newspapers, we should become something other than politicians. The goal is to do what we promised to our citizens. And the Council of Europe has delivered, has delivered quite a lot.
I think Madame President, Madame Secretary General, we can be proud that we have a great past. It is now time to take care and to work all together to have a great future. We can if we want. I am honoured to be a member of this Assembly. I am honoured to have the possibility, so many times in the year, to talk with all of you, whatever different opinions we have. And I hope that in the future, Madame President, Madam Secretary General, we will move away from considering this hemicycle as a battleground for geopolitical struggle. And to make it evermore an innovative factory where good ideas to the benefit of our 830 million citizens can develop into working instruments. Once again, we can if we want.
Thank you very much.

Ms Liliane MAURY PASQUIER

Switzerland, SOC, President of the Assembly 
My dear colleagues,
Dear friends,
We are coming to the end of our ceremony.
I would like to thank the Presidents of the political groups, and all of you who have joined us in this Chamber, for your presence and your participation, which testify to your commitment to the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe.
This commitment is particularly important after the crisis that our Assembly and the Council of Europe have gone through. I said it at the opening of our part-session: I am deeply convinced that, if we have succeeded in overcoming these difficulties, it is thanks to our desire for dialogue, to our deep commitment to our political mission. That is, to guarantee and protect the rights and freedoms of all our peoples, our fellow citizens. This political mission unites us and gives meaning to our common work. Dialogue allows us to better understand each other, to mitigate our differences, and to find a common agenda to move forward together.
As President of this Assembly, I will spare no effort to continue to facilitate this process, and I count on the support of each and every one of you.
I thank you for your attention, and I now suggest that we rise and listen to the European anthem, in order to conclude this ceremony.

The sitting was closed at 12:34