Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-14-Speech-3-475"
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"en.20090114.21.3-475"2
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"Mr President, given that external relations is one of the key priorities of the Czech presidency, I would ask the presidency of the Council to outline what moves it would consider taking to encourage the Belarusian Government to lift its international travel ban on children travelling to EU Member States for rest and recuperation programmes. I urge the new Czech presidency to negotiate a pan-European agreement allowing Belarusian children affected by the Chernobyl disaster to travel to any Member State within the EU.
I have, with my colleagues, added paragraph 10 to the present European Parliament resolution to this effect. In August of last year, the Belarusian Government announced it was outlawing overseas visits after one child refused to return home following a trip abroad.
The Irish Government managed to secure an exemption which allowed children to travel to Ireland this Christmas, but many other children still have to secure exit visas to leave Belarus in order to participate in rest and recuperation programmes. Some 1Â 000 Irish families host Belarusian children in their homes every summer and at Christmas, which often includes medical assessment and in some cases treatment.
While I welcome the Belarusian authorities’ decision to temporarily lift the travel ban on a number of victims of the Chernobyl disaster, I would urge the presidency to keep the pressure on so that an EU-wide agreement can be secured in the near future, giving Belarusian children the freedom to travel to anywhere within the EU.
I have also raised the international travel ban with you, Commissioner, and in your response to my letter you said that representations had been made both through the European Commission delegation in Minsk and also most recently during the visit to Minsk in early November by the RELEX deputy director-general. I would like to ask you if you have an update on EU advocacy efforts to have this oppressive ban lifted."@en1
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