Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 11 February 2015 - Strasbourg

Accession of Singapore to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (A8-0003/2015 - Heidi Hautala)

  Sajjad Karim (ECR), in writing. — On behalf of the Conservative MEPs in Parliament and as Conservative spokesman for legal affairs, I voted in favour of this report as the 1980 Hague Convention is an effective tool in the resolution of international child abduction cases and extending its application to more countries, as long as they fully comply with the obligations under the Convention, would enhance the legal certainty for those involved in such disputes.

However, I strongly support the assessments which many Member States currently undertake in order to carefully assess any third country’s ability to implement the Convention properly before accepting its accession. These assessments prevent any potential risks which may arise from returning children to a third country which does not respect rule of law or basic legal procedures in family law cases, or does not have a competent authority which could verify a child’s well-being.

I therefore support calls for the Commission to urgently produce such assessments for these countries, which it has yet to produce.