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Adoptions across borders: Investigate Commission abuse of power

3 December 2010

Adoptions across borders: Investigate Commission abuse of power

SP Member of Parliament Nine Kooiman and Euro-MP Dennis de Jong are seeking an explanation regarding reports that the European Commission has been attempting to increase its powers, using adopted children as a device for doing so. A prestigious Romanian newspaper revealed today that the Commission has put researchers under pressure to conclude that there is a need for a European Adoption Agency, a conclusion which their underlying investigation does not support. Kooiman: 'We all know about the European Commission’s greed for greater resources and more power, but that problems surrounding adoption should be exploited to further these ends is something I find appalling. Adoptive children need greater protection and great care.”

Adoption scandals in the past were sufficient for Romania to put a stop to international adoptions. Now attempts are being made to force the country to open its borders for adoptions once more. There have long been rumours over the establishment of a European adoption policy. ‘I’ve recently put a number of critical questions on the issue, but these have not been answered,’ says Kooiman. ‘Today’s revelations, however, go even further than what I already suspected.'

The SP does not support the idea that the EU should encourage international adoptions, because the principle in such matters should be that children should whenever possible be able to grow up in their original surroundings. Adoption from abroad is, moreover, a delicate process. ‘If it is true that the European Commission has manipulated research findings, then we have a problem,’ says Kooiman. ‘Not only because it’s unacceptable that findings should be adjusted so that Europe can grab more power, but above all because this concerns vulnerable children. The interest of the child must come first, not the interest of the European Commission.'

Kooiman has put a number of written questions on the issue of adoption to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of State for Justice.

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