Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-222"
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"en.20090113.25.2-222"2
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"I endorse the report by the rapporteur, Mr Coelho, who has produced an excellent piece of work, as always. I agree with the proposals put forward, including that concerning the ‘one person-one passport’ principle.
However, I would like to hear what the Commission, in particular, or perhaps even my colleague Mr Coelho has to say about the question of what we should do when children travel alone, unaccompanied by their parents, as there is no uniform policy as regards which documentation they have to carry with them. The rapporteur’s proposal is that the names of those with parental responsibility should be printed in the child’s passport. However, sometimes, children travel accompanied by other family members and may, in fact, even live with them and so on. In short, we should be reasonably flexible in this regard.
On the other hand, I am concerned that no one has challenged the practicability of six-year-old children travelling unaccompanied. It might be possible by plane (let us not, at this juncture, discuss the possible traumas that the child – a six-year-old boy or girl – might experience on a plane), as the child could be accompanied onto the plane, met at the other end and chaperoned to one of his or her parents, for example, or to someone else. However, what arrangements would pertain when children travel by train, coach or other means of public transport? How would that be monitored? If there are parents who are irresponsible enough to send their children on such journeys, I think that we should take a more positive stance on this and say that children are not permitted to travel on their own at such a young age. That may, perhaps, sound somewhat harsh, but as much has already been said here on how precious children are and on the topic of kidnapping and so on, we should also make a bolder statement on this issue.
I would also like to ask the Commission how things stand with the joint statement of the Council and the European Parliament concerning the security of the original documents needed in order for a visa to be issued. This is because I am somewhat concerned that, if it is true, the system in a particular Member State might be allowing abuse to take place at the point of issue. I would put one final question to the Commission, or perhaps to Mr Coelho: what should we do when people arrive at a border, but the data in their passports does not correspond with that held in official databases? I think that we ought to include an instruction that benefits the child, or rather, the passenger."@en1
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