Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-11-19-Speech-1-062-000"
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"en.20121119.18.1-062-000"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to thank the rapporteur and Vice-President Reding, taking as my starting point a fact: over the past few years, there has been a progressive and positive growth in the movement of persons. Consequently, marriages and relationships – and indeed, on the other hand, divorces and separations – between couples of different nationalities have also been on the increase. Some data: every year around 300 000 couples of different nationality get married in Europe. Around half of these marriages end in divorce or separation; and while a relationship breakdown between spouses is fraught with disagreements or downright dramatic, it is often children who suffer the negative effects of this, and there are clashes not only between the two parents but also between two different States and two different judicial systems.
It is for this very reason that, among other things, the Hague Convention, which has been signed by 87 countries and all the Member States of the European Union, is important: it is one of the most important multilateral agreements for child protection; it sets fundamental rules and establishes clear criteria, particularly when the child is at risk of forced removal or a failure to return to his or her usual country of residence. These are rules to protect children from traumatic disputes in which these little ones are in danger of becoming real victims.
I find it particularly serious and, indeed, deplorable that the Council has blocked the procedure for eight countries to accede to the Hague Convention. In the past few weeks alone, to give an example, there have been new cases of international child abduction involving Russia, which is one of the countries to which this declaration of acceptance relates; the accession of one country, namely Russia, has been waiting for acceptance either from the European Union or from the Member States for a long time.
In my view, family is a key value in society for the Member States of the European Union, and the institutions must support and defend it, in particular when it is in crisis, primarily in order to protect as paramount the interests of the child. Therefore, blocking a procedure which should be dealt with quickly not only undoes the progress of a procedure that helps in the proper functioning of the Union but, most of all, in fact, undoes the protection as paramount of the interests of the child.
To conclude, speaking also as the representative of the European Parliament in cases of international abduction, I know that a vast array of situations is coming into being, purely because of uncertainty about the applicable law, conflicts between jurisdictions and insufficient knowledge and awareness of the rights and duties of couples of mixed nationality."@en1
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