Dear Presidents of Parliaments, European and national, dear members of delegations, dear ladies and gentlemen, 

it is my honour to welcome you all here, at Prague Castle, the place that we are so proud of, at the occasion of your annual conference. The conference which aims at promoting democracy, through dialogue, consultations and better understanding. 

We live in the times that are extremely difficult because of numerous crises and challenges. Among those, at the first place, is the aggressive war of Russia against sovereign Ukraine. The war that caused millions of people displaced, millions of refugees into a number of countries, and of course a lot of suffering, and destroyed economy. It affected global trade, caused crisis in provision of energy into a number of countries, and still there is no end to this war. 

We also face challenges from a number of authoritarian regimes around the world. We also face much more assertive China in a number of areas, but we also face challenges from our internal problems because democracies are not free of problems. As Winston Churchill used to say, “It is the worst form of government, obviously, with the exception of all those that we have tried before.” 

So, democracies are not perfect, that’s why we have to take care of them. And at the forefront of this fight for healthy democracies are you, the people who are dealing with legislation in a number of countries. You are the guardians of democracy. And we need healthy democracy, we need more cooperation, we need more understanding, more unity in the end. And I would like to thank you for all the work you have done so far, but also for the work which is ahead of us. And I would like to wish you all the best in this endeavour. 

Enjoy this evening, thank you.