2015/2086(INL) | [ParlTrack]

Beatriz BECERRA BASTERRECHEA, Cecilia WIKSTRÖM

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1

1. Considers that the best interest of ~~the child must be the paramount of~~children is of highest importance, which must be also the main criterion when taking any kind of decision related to their adoption ~~of a child~~; calls on Member States to ensure the implementation of the children's right to freely express their views and have these taken into consideration according to their age and maturity, as enshrined in art. 24 CFR;

Amendment 10 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. ~~Draws the attention of the European Commission, the Council and the Member States on the possible harmful consequences of non-consensual adoptions for birth parents and the adopted children~~Recognises that while procedures dispending with parental consent for adoption are primarily means to protect children from situations of abandonment, abuse, mistreatment, loss of parental rights, etc, these also have severe consequences for birth parents and the adopted children, notably if appropriate social and family support is lacking and a policy pushing for adoptions is officially pursued;

Amendment 11 #

Soledad CABEZÓN RUIZ

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. Draws the attention of the European Commission, the Council and the Member States ton the possible harmful consequences of non-consensual adoptions for birth parents and the adopted children; stresses that this type of adoption, while safeguarding the best interest of the child in every case, must be the last resort to be used when all measures to support the biological family have been exhausted; urges Member States to promote a system of pre-adoption family support and care, and to shore up and improve such systems where they already exist;

Amendment 12 #

Emil RADEV

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. Draws the attention of the European Commission, the Council and the Member States on the ~~possible~~ harmful consequences for birth parents and the adopted children caused by vicious practices of non- consensual adoptions ~~for birth parents and the adopted children;~~applied in some Member States; Calls on the European commission to propose appropriate measures to address these practices in the planned reform of Regulation №2201 / 2003.

Amendment 13 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. Draws the attention of the European Commission, the Council and the Member States on the possible harmful consequences of non-consensual and of non- adoptions for birth parents and the adopted children consensual long-term fostering, which goes against the principle established in at least some Member States that fostering should be a temporary solution;

Amendment 14 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. Draws the attention of the European Commission, the Council and the Member States on the possible harmful consequences of non-consensual adoptions for birth parents and the adopted children; considers that such a procedure should be restricted to particularly exceptional and well grounded cases;

Amendment 15 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4 a. Considers that it must be ensured that no decision involving changes in custody of children such as foster care placement order or adoption procedures, have their origin in the budgetary cuts resulting of the austerity measures imposed during the economic crisis;

Amendment 16 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)

4 b. Stresses the importance of providing social workers with adequate working conditions to perform their assessment, avoiding an excessive workload in terms of amount of cases to be handled simultaneously, or any other pressure imposed by the applying legal framework that could influence in any way a decision to be made with a certain bias, which could deviate from the best interest of the child with the short, mid and long term perspectives all considered; recommends that an adequate amount of specialised training on children matters is provided not only to social workers and other concerned public officers, but also to lawyers involved in child custody proceedings;

Amendment 17 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5

5. Calls on Member States, in case of proceedings related to non-consensual adoptions with cross-border aspects, to systematically implement the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 and to make sure that the authorities of the States of origin of the parents involved ~~have been properly informed~~ are properly informed from the very beginning and throughout the whole process, and that they have proper access to the proceedings and the related files; underlines the importance of ensuring that adequate interpretation and legal aid is provided whenever necessary;

Amendment 18 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5

5. Calls on Member States, in case of proceedings related to non-consensual adoptions with cross-border aspects, to systematically implement the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 and to make sure that the authorities of the States of origin of the parents involved ~~have been properly informed~~ are properly informed from the very start of the process and have full access to hearings concerning children for whom they are acting as legal guardians;

Amendment 19 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5

Amendment 2 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1a. Believes that common minimum standards should be drawn up for the purpose of defining both 'habitual residence' and 'best interests of the child';

Amendment 20 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5 a. When social workers of one Member State carry out missions to establish the facts of the case for adoption in other Member states, calls upon the sending State to inform all appropriate authorities in the country where the mission is conducted.

Amendment 21 #

Soledad CABEZÓN RUIZ

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5a. Urges the Commission, in the case of complaints regarding non-consensual adoptions that have cross-border aspects, to carry out a comparative study to analyse whether fewer such complaints are made in Member States that have a strong infrastructure and well-regulated fostering system, along with other pre- adoption care schemes;

Amendment 22 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)

5 b. Calls on Member States to exchange information and conduct awareness campaigns among citizens about the cultural traditions and rules regarding the raising of children applied in other Member States in order to be informed about practices that would lead to the withdrawal of their parental rights and giving their children for adoption.

Amendment 23 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6

6. Calls on the Member sStates to ensure, when accurate, the implementation of articles 15 ~~and 55 of the~~on the transfer of the case to a court better placed to hear it and article 55 regarding principles of cooperation on cases specific to parental responsibility of Council Regulation n°(EC) No 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgements in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility;

Amendment 24 #

Emil RADEV

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6

6. Calls on the Member states to ensure~~, when accurate,~~ the implementation of articles 15 and 55 of the Regulation n°2201/2003; Calls on the Commission to review the provisions of these two articles in order to better protect the interests of children and to improve coordination and cooperation between Member States.

Amendment 25 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6

6. Calls on the Member states to ensure, when accurate, the implementation of articles 15 and 55 of the Regulation n°2201/2003; stresses, in this connection, that the courts in all the Member States should be given more detailed guidelines in order to ensure that those articles are implemented more fully and more effectively;

Amendment 26 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7

7. Calls on the Member States~~, in case of adoption, to~~ to agree on a minimum threshold for the duration of cross-border adoption procedures, ensureing that ~~the~~ relatives of the birth parents have ~~had~~ a real opportunity to apply as ~~permanent carer of the chil~~adopters of the child; draws, in this regard, attention to international standards and recalls article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), underlining the obligation of governments to respect and protect children's identity, including their family relations. Recalls, furthermore, article 20 UNCRC, which states that when considering different solutions such as foster placement, adoption or placement in suitable institutions for the care of children, due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child's upbringing and the child's ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background;

Amendment 27 #

Beatriz BECERRA BASTERRECHEA, Cecilia WIKSTRÖM

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7

7. Calls on the Member States, in case of adoption, to ensure that the relatives of the birth parents have had a real opportunity to apply as permanent carer of the child before any definitive decision on custody is made; remarks in light of the importance of preserving multilingualism and the cultural diversity, that children adopted or placed into care have sufficient links with their original culture and do not lose their mother tongue, and particularly that visiting rights of biological parents can take place with the adequate frequency and in their own language;

Amendment 28 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7

7. Calls on the Member States, in case of adoption, to ensure that the relatives of the bi~~rth~~ological parents ~~have had a real opportunity to apply~~are considered as permanent caretaker of the child;

Amendment 29 #

Julia PITERA, Jarosław WAŁĘSA

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7

7. Calls on the Member States, in case ofs involving the adoption of children who have lost both their parents and forced adoptions where the consent of the birth parents has not been obtained, and without prejudice to the priority assigned to stepchild adoption, to ensure that the relatives of both the birth parents have had a real opportunity to apply as permanent carer of the child;

Amendment 3 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. IStates that there is no mechanism within the EU governing automatic recognition of domestic adoption orders made within other Member States, which represents a barrier to free movement of families; insists on the absolute necessity to ensure legal certainty in the field of ~~inter- country~~cross-border recognition of domestic adoption for the protection of the parents' and children's rights respecting at the same time EU law provisions as regards European Citizenship; notes, however, that there should be a possibility to refuse the recognition of a domestic adoption if it is manifestly contrary to the public policy of the recognizing state;

Amendment 30 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7 a. Calls on the Member States to ensure compliance with all procedural rights of relatives involved in the process and who are nationals of another Member State, including the provision of legal assistance, duly and timely information about the hearings, an interpreter, all relevant to the case documents in their native language, etc.

Amendment 31 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7a. In cases where children who have lost both parents are declared eligible for adoption or instances of forced adoption where the consent of the birth parents has not been obtained, and without prejudice to stepchild adoption, the suitability of members of the extended family to become foster parents must be assessed by social workers in both of the Member States involved;

Amendment 32 #

Soledad CABEZÓN RUIZ

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7a. Urges Member States to take account of complaints of violence within the family as a crucial criterion in cases of adoption, in particular gender-based and/or sexual violence against children by action and/or omission on the part of the biological parents;

Amendment 33 #

Emil RADEV

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8

8. ~~Asks~~Calls on the Member States' authorities involved in adoption proce~~edings~~dures, to make ~~all the possible efforts in order not to separate siblings~~every effort not to separate siblings and to give preference to adoptions by relatives of the biological parents of the child.

Amendment 34 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8

8. Asks the Member States authorities involved in adoption proceedings to make all the possible efforts in order not to separate siblings.; recalls, in this regard, article 8 UNCRC, underlining the obligation of governments to respect and protect children's identity, including their family relations;

Amendment 35 #

Julia PITERA, Jarosław WAŁĘSA

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 – point 1 (new)

(1) Underlines the necessity to improve support structures for families; therefore, calls on the Commission and Member States to co-finance and promote the set- up of networks of NGOs providing assistance to EU citizens who live with their families in another Member State and require additional help in their cooperation with child welfare services and local authorities;

Amendment 36 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 – point 2 (new)

(2) Calls on the Member States to compile regular statistics on cases of children who are nationals of another Member State and are placed into care or adopted.

Amendment 37 #

Svetoslav Hristov MALINOV

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)

8 a. Calls on the European Commission to provide a clear and easy accessible guide with practical information for the citizens on the institutional arrangements for child protection, especially as concerns the adoption without parental consent and parents' rights in different Member states.

Amendment 38 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)

8 a. Calls on Member States to promote specific training for judges dealing with transnational procedures for adoption of children.

Amendment 39 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)

8a. Recommends that better training should be given to social workers, with a view to ensuring that those handling cases involving children of another nationality have the necessary knowledge and skills relating to the protection of the rights of the child at EU and national level;

Amendment 4 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Insists on the absolute necessity to ensure legal certainty in the field of inter- country adoption for the protection of the parents' and children's rights respecting at the same time EU law provisions as regards European Citizenship; considers that it must be ensured that the exercise of a fundamental right such as the freedom of movement and residence does not entail a higher threat to the right to family life;

Amendment 40 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)

8b. Points out that austerity policies and the spending cuts some Member States have been obliged to make by the Commission are seriously undermining the quality and availability of social services and making it more difficult for a proper assessment to be made of individual cases during proceedings relating to judgments in matrimonial matters and matters of parental responsibility;

Amendment 41 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)

8 b. Notes that to ensure the protection of the best interests of the child, enhanced cooperation between European judges in this area is needed.

Amendment 42 #

Beatriz BECERRA BASTERRECHEA, Cecilia WIKSTRÖM

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 c (new)

8c. Calls on Member States to use funds earmarked for foster families and children's homes (which are generally funded by local authorities) to provide help at home to children and parents in difficulties.

Amendment 5 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Insists on the absolute necessity to ensure legal certainty in the field of inter- country adoption for the protection of the parents' and children's rights respecting and promoting at the same time EU law provisions as regards European Citizenship, free movement, the principles of mutual recognition and mutual trust, in full respect of the Charter of Fundamental Rights;

Amendment 6 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. Calls for equal treatment of parents with different nationality during proceedings in matters of parental responsibility and adoption.

Amendment 7 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

3. Calls on the Member States to avoid heavy bureaucracy in the process of recognition of ~~Conventional~~inter-country adoptions already recognised in another EU Member State so as to ensure a correct implementation of the 1993 Hague Convention; invites EU Member States to encourage non-contracting States to join the 1993 Hague Convention, which would guarantee that all children benefit from the same standards, and help avoid a parallel system with less safeguards;

Amendment 8 #