Linda McAvan (S&D). - Mr President, I think it is an important debate we are having today, and I want to firstly put on record my thanks to organisations like UNICEF which work very hard to promote children’s rights in very difficult situations all over the world.

We have had 25 years of some progress, but, as colleagues here have said, also some difficult situations. Elena Valenciano talked in particular about the problems facing girls, and this is something I hope the new Commission will address, particularly in our external policies as well as our internal and development policies, because we know that girls are getting left behind with all the problems that were outlined.

Dr Mukwege told us this lunchtime about appalling abuse: sexual abuse of children and babies that he has seen and had to deal with, and I think this shows us that there is still a long way to go. In my own country, though, we are unearthing many scandals of children having been exploited in the past and being exploited now today, and abused; many in the state’s care. So in our own countries we have work to do.

The question is: what are we going to do about it? Next year we have an opportunity, because world leaders will gather at the United Nations in September and they will agree a successor programme to the Millennium Development Goals. We know those MDGs delivered for children in some areas, and now we need to make sure the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) really deliver for children, and I hope the new Commission will put its focus on making sure that happens and that they will deliver a programme for us on children for that negotiation.