Five Bulgarian MEPs submitted a Written Declaration on a common European policy on the care and bringing up of disadvantaged children

30.01.2007

The Bulgarian MEPs Filiz Hyusmenova, Metin Kazak, prof. Vladko Panayotov, Bilyana Raeva, and Iliana Iotova submitted on Wednesday afternoon to the European Parliament in Brussels a Written Declaration on a common European policy on the care and bringing up of disadvantaged children.
The document demands that the care of those children become a priority European policy until such time as the degrading inequality of children who are not wanted by their families is eradicated.
The authors of the declaration request that the European Committee carries out constant monitoring over the orphanages.
The paramount appeal is not to politicize such a complex social issue, as the case has been both in Bulgaria, and in other EU Member States.
'Last year we witnessed the inability of the Czech Republic to resolve a similar issue. We have seen horrible images from Polish and Russian orphanages. The situation in orphanages like the one in Mogilino is too critical, therefore the cheap populism at the expense of sick children is unacceptable. We are convinced that we shall be more useful as politicians if we actually do something to help them. That is why we submitted the Written Declaration to the European Parliament', said Metin Kazak.
The Written Declaration has been initiated by the MEPs from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, but it was immediately approved by their colleagues from the National Movement Simeon II and the Bulgarian Socialist Party. Other countries have already declared their support to the declaration as well.
'None of the new EU Member States could handle such a severe social injustice that has been inherited from the past. That is why we insist that the care for disadvantaged children does not remain just a campaign but become a permanent and operational European policy, involving a constant monitoring until the degrading inequality of children in orphanages is eradicated', pleaded Metin Kazak.
The regulations of the European Parliament require that a minimum of five MEPs submit the written declaration, and this was done on Wednesday afternoon in Brussels. Within five working days from submitting the declaration in Bulgarian, it will be translated into all other official languages of the Community, and those languages are more than 20. During the first plenary day to follow, the declaration is presented for signature by the rest of the MEPs. Once more than half of the MEPs sign, it becomes an official act of the European Parliament.
Supporters can start join the Written Declaration as of February 18, 2008, in Strassbourg. Many MEPs from the Liberal Alliance, the Party of European Socialists, and other European Parliament formations expressed their willingness to join the initiative.