Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-14-Speech-3-472"
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"en.20090114.21.3-472"2
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"Mr President, this evening, we are debating the EU’s policy in respect of Belarus, a policy in which democracy and respect for human rights take centre stage.
I should like to focus on one specific area, namely the travel ban for children, without, of course, prejudicing any of the other relevant aspects that have already been mentioned this evening. You are probably aware that children, victims of the Chernobyl disaster, have been paying regular visits to the Netherlands and other EU countries for years, in order to recover from the effects of this disaster. The children involved are, of course, children who were born long after that disaster struck – they are now about the same age as I was when that disaster struck 22 years ago – but they are still experiencing the effects on a daily basis, as is evident from the statistics for thyroid gland complaints, cancer, and suchlike. Every year, some 30 000 Belarusian children are welcomed in 21 countries by host families, voluntary organisations and churches.
In October 2008, it was reported that Belarus, via a decree, would stop these children’s trips and would prohibit these children to travel abroad, which would put a stop to the Christmas holidays, therefore. Partly under pressure from the European Union, the Council of Europe and a number of Foreign Affairs Ministers, including our Dutch Minister Verhagen, this decree was temporarily suspended between 20 December and 20 January, enabling a number of children to come over on holiday after all, but no provisions have been made for the time after 20 January. It is, therefore, high time we changed this temporary suspension into a structural, EU-wide solution so that Belarusian children and the European host families are no longer kept in the dark as to whether their trips can go ahead or not. Ideally, we would like to legislate on behalf of all Member States in one fell swoop rather than, as is currently the case, via bilateral negotiations, 27 times over.
In our resolution, we would therefore urge the Czech Presidency to negotiate with the Belarusian authorities about an EU-wide solution."@en1
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