still occurs and how often we see gender inequality across Europe. And combating this requires our hardest work, and I believe that civil society plays a central role here. They are often at the front line when it comes to promoting equality and to fighting for that, and we must thank them most warmly for that and, of course, show our greatest respect. I am delighted that the Council of Europe is honouring this by launching the Vigdís Prize. And it is great to see that we will be awarding the Prize for the first time in the year that we will also celebrate the 75th anniversary of our Organisation, which is wonderful. Thank you very much.

Ms Mariia Mezentseva, Chairperson of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly Thank you, dear Franziska, for your leadership and, of course, yet again for having us all here. Next on my list is the Chairwoman of Latvian delegation. Zanda, are you here? The floor is yours, please.

Ms Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica (Latvia, EPP/CD) Thank you, Mariia. And thank you all for this very important discussion. Indeed, gender equality and women empowerment are very topical. We have achieved important milestones in these issues already. But nevertheless, the road ahead is long and consists of many, many challenges even in the most developed and equal countries. Countries where we can witness progress in equality must show benefits from openness and inclusion and by that, encourage and inspire others. And this is why the initiative like the Vigdís Prize for Women’s Empowerment is very significant indeed. The first woman elected Head of State in the world, president of Iceland Vigdís, as well as her successors and here allow me to mention for me personally a very significant person, Latvian first woman president, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. They are excellent examples of women empowerment and serve as inspiration for many, many women and men around the world in everyday life. So, allow me also to linger on memories of this spring when together with women at PACE and in the leadership of Despina, we organised breakfast meeting in Riga with distinguished Dr Vīķe-Freiberga. And I think indeed these women who already have their experience as leaders, like Latvian President, Icelandic President and also including you, Mariia, here, are strong and respectful symbols of equality and women empowerment. And if we have more of these examples, we can achieve more. And that is why I think such meetings and such initiatives like Vigdís Prize for Women’s Empowerment give us strengths and believe that there is nothing that we cannot achieve, and it shapes a better future for all of us. And allow me to share with you a hope that this week Latvia will be another country joining the club of those who ratified the Istanbul Convention. We will have a vote in two days - on Thursday - in our parliament. We are going through a difficult kind of discussions because the level of disinformation that our country is facing right now, it is quite incredible and enormous. So, I hope that we will succeed the vote and I hope that all of you will be in your thoughts with us on Thursday and keeping your fingers crossed. Thank you.

Ms Mariia Mezentseva, Chairperson of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly Brilliant news. And I wanted to say that we will all pray, but then I remember these religious organisations in many member States who were going through this war against the ratification. But we still will pray you will make it. Thank you, for your leadership and we are going to the next leader, the Chairwoman of the Culture Committee, Yevheniia Kravchuk, who has the floor.

Ms Yevheniia Kravchuk (Ukraine, ALDE) Thank you, Mariia. Thank you to all the guests in the panel. I think it is a very important topic and I would like to thank again the Equality Committee for the leadership in this process. And I would like to refer to the resolution to the report that I did in the Equality Committee. It was about the role of women during conflicts and peace reconciliation. And I want to underline again that of course, during conflicts, during the wars, women are in most vulnerable group, but at the same time women are leaders. I think Ukraine has been setting an example having three women in Bureau and Standing Committee of PACE and I think it is a vivid example of what women can do, women from Ukraine. And as well I would like to underline that very important topic is ensuring that women participate in economic development in building of the economies. In Ukraine, we are discussing now the facility plan for 50 billion euros to receive from the European Union and together with our cabinet ministers, we made sure that gender aspect is one of the criteria to judge to receive this money because women have to be in the front line of the economic development. And for sure we together with Mariia and Olena Khomenko will make all possible that women will be in all the active roles in the recovery plan and reconstruction of Ukraine. Thank you.

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