Jim Murphy

Child protection in the EU

Next week we will start debating the Lisbon Treaty in Parliament. Previous EU Treaties recognised animal rights. This is the first to recognise children’s rights. I’m a vegetarian, and in favour of animal welfare but the rights of children are much more important. This Treaty puts that right.

Since the BBC broadcast "Bulgaria's Abandoned Children", in September and November last year, showing distressing images of conditions in the Mogilino Care Home, Bulgaria has pledged to reform its institutional care for children, with help from the EU and member states including the UK. This year, around 5 million euro will be made available from EU funds to help develop alternative care arrangements.

The UK, and the EU, will continue to support the efforts of the Bulgarian government and the NGO community to protect vulnerable children in Bulgaria. On Wednesday, the European Parliament backed an EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child which will include tougher measures to combat paedophilia on the internet and child sex tourism, and enable the prosecution of suppliers of products manufactured with child labour.

Leading UK charities recognise the important role the EU can play on improving the lives of children. As Dame Mary Marsh, chief executive of NSPCC has said, the EU has an important role to play on the objective of ending cruelty to children. The NSPCC, like many other voluntary sector organisations, has recognised that the Lisbon Treaty will have a real impact. It will help improve EU co-operation on measures to tackle child exploitation, for example, through changes in the way decisions are taken at an EU level. It’s exactly those challenges, like child trafficking or online sexual exploitation, that cross borders and can't be effectively tackled by any one country individually.

Posted at 13:14 18 January 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[6]