Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-02-28-Speech-4-042"
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"en.20020228.3.4-042"2
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"Madam President, may I congratulate the rapporteur on her report and the Commissioner and the Commission services for creating a real new framework here for contact between the youth of Europe and the rest of the world.
There are numerous positive points, but I should like to comment on what I think is one of the problems. The Youth programme is very mean towards a particularly vulnerable group of young people in Europe. I refer to young immigrants. By ignoring their specific needs, by overlooking the additional problems which they face and by failing to dedicate special actions to their social integration, it is in effect slamming the door in their face. And yet it is the young immigrants now at the heart of Europe who, with all the other young people, are building the future of Europe. We therefore need special support for these vulnerable groups if we are to avoid ghettos and exclusion and ensure they become productive and creative. Whereas, I see the risk here of the programme's favouring groups of more privileged young people who are drip-fed on state benefits.
I should also like the Commissioner to go beyond the Youth programme and, instead of focusing on young people over 18 years old, to spare a thought for the fact that their formative years are during childhood. There are tens of millions – the figure is somewhere in the region of 60 million – children under 18 years of age in Europe and we should be looking at how a whole series of their rights are trampled underfoot at that tender age. Serious exploitation and myriad dangers jeopardise their formative, cultural and educational years.
I think we need a dynamic European policy on children, we need someone to speak out on their behalf and effectively defend their material interests. Given that the UN is convening a summit in May to discuss reforming the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a summit which the European Parliament has asked to attend, it would be an excellent idea if the Commissioner were to take the initiative on a new, integrated and uniform policy on children and young people at European level."@en1
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