The European Commission also recently announced that it would commit an unprecedented €3.5 billion ($4.6 billion) towards reducing

malnutrition between 2014 and 2020; UNICEF will be one of the implementing partners. And as part of their strategic collaboration, the EU, with UNICEF, recently developed the Child Rights Toolkit:

UNICEF Executive Board Special Focus Session

Partners for change and development:

the growing partnership between the European Union and UNICEF

Mr Timmermans, don’t underestimate civil society's potential in shaping Europe’s future

DISCLAIMER: All opinions in this column reflect the views of the author(s), not of Euractiv.com PLC.

Social Platform by Jana Hainsworth 12:26

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Frans Timmermans speaking at "A New Pact for Europe" Conference

Children’s Authority promises easy adoption process

Published on Jun 16, 2015, 11:37 am AST

By Carolyn Kissoon

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Minister defends ‘Barnevernet’

June 12, 2015

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The name of the Norwegian state agency charged with ensuring the welfare of children, Barnevernet, has become well-known far beyond Norway’s borders, for all the wrong reasons. Thorny cases of children taken away from foreign parents have made headlines from India to Lithuania but now the government minister in charge of the embattled agency is coming to its defense, while also promising to take all the complaints against it seriously.

Solveig Horne, the government minister in charge of children's and family issues, is now tackling the controversy around Norway's state child welfare agency "barnevernet." PHOTO: regjeringen.no

The Union of Municipalities of Montenegro`s Executive Board held it`s third session

UO 23.04.2015The Union of Municipalities of Montenegro`s Executive Board held it`s third session on 23 April 2015 in Podgorica.

The session chaired by the President of the Executive Board Mr. Aleksandar Bogdanovic, discussed the current issues that are under direct competence of local government units.

The project “Development of local services for children without parental care and young people leaving institutions of child protection” was presented to the Executive Board by Mr.Benjamin Perks, Head of the UNICEF mission in Montenegro. Project`s realization is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, which is implemented with the support of UNICEF Office in Podgorica and in partnership with the local government units. He stressed out that the local governments are expected to provide support to children without parental care by establishing small group communities and by providing living space for children leaving Center for children in Bijela after legal age.

Mr. Goran Kusevija, Assistant to the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare stressed that the adoption of the Law on Social and Child Protection confirmed the readiness of the Government and local authorities for further development and improving social service and child protection at the local level. The Executive Board confirmed the willingness of local government units to take all necessary actions that will contribute to the full implementation of the project.

10-06-2015:

WACHTTIJDEN BULGARIJE:

Gisteren, 9 juni 2015, vond er een meeting plaats tussen het Bulgaarse Ministerie van Justitie en de Bulgaarse Vergunninghouders.

Eén van de Bulgaarse Vergunninghouders heeft hierover een eigen interpretatie gepubliceerd en op eigen website geplaatst.

Dit bericht heeft kennelijk voor onrust gezorgd bij een aantal aspirant adoptief ouders die op de wachtlijst Bulgarije staan bij onze organisatie.

Evilly written:

III. European Union approves the 2005 Choice of Court Convention

H.E. Mr Maris Klišans, Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia, signed and deposited the instrument of approval of the 2005 Choice of Court Convention on behalf of the European Union, as the Republic of Latvia currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. The approval of the 2005 Choice of Court Convention by the European Union will trigger the Convention's entry into force on Thursday 1 October 2015. Twenty-eight States (all EU Member States except Denmark -- as well as Mexico, which was the first State to accede to the Convention on 26 September 2007) will then be bound by the Convention.

This is the third out of four instruments of the Hague Conference (after the 2007 Hague Convention and Protocol on Maintenance) to which the European Union becomes a party as a Regional Economic Integration Organisation. In addition, the Apostille, Child Abduction, and Intercountry Adoption Conventions are also in force in all EU Member States.

Date: 05/03/15

European adoption. Patricello (EPP): "Establish a European Agency to handle adoptions among the various states of the old continent." The proposal presented by Ai.Bi.

European adoption. Patricello (EPP): "Establish a European body to handle adoptions among the various states of the old continent." The proposal presented by Ai.Bi.

In the European Parliament we talk of international adoptions. Merit of the Italian deputy Aldo Patricello, member of Forza Italy and member of the EPP. MEP urges the European Commission to adopt "a new proposal for a Regulation establishing a European body that deals with managing, according to the procedures and rules to be established by that regulation, adoptions intra".

The European agency would be responsible to manage, coordinate and facilitate the whole procedure. Explains Mr Patricello: "I think, therefore, that a European directing could be an effective solution to bring order among the different systems of procedure that govern the processes of adoption. Greater integration also depends on the awareness of our rights related to the concept of citizenship: the EU can and should facilitate the exercise of such a right. This is not, of course, to change the existing rules - says MEP Molise - but rather to prepare a homogeneous path and more effective for all EU citizens who wish to adopt children born in European territory and who often have to extricate themselves, with many difficulties including the complicated bureaucratic procedures that are different from country to country. "

Basic information

2015/2086(INL)

INL - Legislative initiative procedure

Cross-border recognition of adoptions

Subject

Hochgerüsteter Kidnapping-Service: Italiens Polizei fasst professionelle Kinderentführer

Sie kamen angeblich mit Schnellbooten, Helikoptern und Waffen, um Kinder zu entführen: Italienische Ermittler haben eine Bande gefasst, die einen professionellen Kidnapping-Service betrieben haben soll. Die meisten Mitglieder waren demnach Elitesoldaten.

Rom - Die italienische Polizei hat einen internationalen Kinderschmuggler-Ring ausgehoben, der vor allem bei Sorgerechtskonflikten seine Dienste anbot. Die Gruppe habe sich überwiegend aus früheren Elitesoldaten zusammengesetzt, teilten die Ermittler mit. Die Bande bot demnach einen Entführungsservice für in Sorgerechtsstreitigkeiten unterlegene Eltern unterschiedlicher Nationalitäten an.

Mit russischen Waffen, Schnellbooten und einer Basis auf der italienischen Mittelmeerinsel Sizilien ausgestattet, verschleppten die Kidnapper die Kinder dabei über mehrere Länder hinweg von einem Elternteil zum anderen. Kostenpunkt pro Operation: mehrere zehntausend Euro.

Der Polizei zufolge führte die Gruppe einen ersten Auftrag aus, als im Oktober 2012 ein Kind in Tunesien entführt und über Sizilien nach Norwegen gebracht wurde. Eine zweite Operation wenige Wochen später, in der ein Kind per Helikopter ebenfalls aus Tunesien verschleppt werden sollte, flog dagegen auf. Zwei mutmaßlich beteiligte Schweden wurden in dem nordafrikanischen Land festgenommen.