“These are difficult times within the Council of Europe itself, when we see states carrying out aggression against other member states and committing crimes, carrying out operations to forcibly displace populations or erase their cultural heritage,” said Gérard Larcher, President of the French Senate, speaking at the opening of the PACE Standing Committee meeting in Paris on 7 March.
Mr Larcher stressed that the outbreak of the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine had been a shock for all democracies, leading to threats in terms of collective security. “After Ukraine, the whole of Europe is being targeted in various ways,” he added, referring to hybrid threats, cyber-attacks and the manipulation of information aimed at directly undermining electoral processes.
“The Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights, are there to remind us of past struggles, and to show how much value is attached to individual and collective rights, the recognition of which is a guarantee of progress for all, peace and freedom,” Mr Larcher concluded.
