International adoption in the European Union

24.11.2010

Question for oral answer O-0193/2010
to the Commission
Rule 115
Roberta Angelilli, Mario Mauro, Marco Scurria, Erminia Mazzoni, Cristiana Muscardini, Simon Busuttil, Silvia Costa, Patrizia Toia, Gabriele Albertini, Clemente Mastella, Licia Ronzulli, Aldo Patriciello, Amalia Sartori, Lara Comi, Barbara Matera, Potito Salatto, Iva Zanicchi, Giovanni Collino, Tiziano Motti, Antonello Antinoro, Salvatore Tatarella, Elisabetta Gardini, Crescenzio Rivellini, Carlo Fidanza, Vito Bonsignore, Giovanni La Via, Alfredo Pallone, Sergio Paolo Frances Silvestris, Paolo Bartolozzi, Antonio Cancian, Anna Záborská, Csaba Sógor, Anne Delvaux, Daniel Caspary, Gianni Pittella, Debora Serracchiani, Pier Antonio Panzeri, Rosario Crocetta, Francesca Balzani, Mario Pirillo, Roberto Gualtieri, Gianluca Susta, Guido Milana, Salvatore Caronna, Vincenzo Iovine, Sonia Alfano, Niccolò Rinaldi, Luigi de Magistris, Nathalie Griesbeck, Giommaria Uggias, Catherine Bearder, Lorenzo Fontana, Oreste Rossi, Alfredo Antoniozzi, Luigi Ciriaco De Mita, Fiorello Provera, Salvatore Iacolino, Raffaele Baldassarre, Herbert Dorfmann, Vittorio Prodi, Rita Borsellino

In Europe the problem of abandoned children has become increasingly serious and pressing. To cope with this emergency it is important to protect the right to adopt at international level in order to prevent these children from being forced to live in orphanages.

Currently there are many conventions on the protection of minors and parental responsibility. The 1967 European Convention on the Adoption of Children aims to harmonise the laws of Member States when the adoption involves a child having to move from one state to another. There is also the 1993 Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption.

With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Charter of Fundamental Rights has become binding; Article 24 states: ‘Children shall have the right to such protection and care as is necessary for their well-being’. Furthermore, Article 3 of the Treaty establishes ‘protection of the rights of the child’ as one of the aims of the Union.

Can the Commission therefore:

– provide an overview of the situation in the 27 Member States?

– tell us what measures have been taken or will be taken at European level to protect minors who are to be adopted by European citizens?

– illustrate how these procedures will ensure that the best interest of the child, as enshrined in various international treaties and conventions, is always protected?

– provide information on how it intends to protect, in the interests of the child, the right to international adoption within the European Union?

Tabled: 24.11.2010

Forwarded: 26.11.2010

Deadline for reply: 3.12.2010