Bulgarian abuse of special needs children & adults

[The Earl of Desmond]

You might recall last year that BBC4 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentar ... dren.shtml - showed a documentary about the plight of special needs children and adults, who had been abandoned in Bulgarian state institutes for the 'sin' of being born blind, deaf or just needing a little extra attention.

Bulgaria is a EU member state and it is 20 years since the end of Communism. Yet the conditions of these children and special needs adults is exactly as we saw when the horrors of Romanias orphanages were revealed in 1989.

You'll have noticed how quickly MEPs - including the Irish ones to their shame - moved to make sure the taxpayer was not given access to how much money MEPs claim in 'expenses' but months after being shown prrof of shocking child abuse, in a EU member state, those who are trying to tackle the plight of the children have to go through immense hoops to get anything done.

This is yet another example of why people should vote No to Lisbon, regardless of how proEU they are, and let everyone who cares about the EU step back, take a breath and reset the EUs priorities properly.

Kathy Sinnott MEP is doing great work on this issue, trying to get a Written Declaration through the Parliament, but she is being fought tooth and nail each step of the way by EU officialdom - by some MEPs, by the Commission and the faceless officials who are never held to account but who are always ever present in the background pulling the strings of weaker politicians - they'll love Michael Martin.

Please take the time to lobby your MEP on this issue - you all have children or grandchilren or nieces and nephews and anyone with even an ounce of humanity can't fail to be sickened and upset at what has happened to these beautiful children and adults.

Then you'll get angry. That anger can be put to good use by holding MEPs to account.

[pikey]

It certainly illustrates the myth that is the EU citizens rights charter. Absolute unadulterated guff .

[The Earl of Desmond]

Well despite all the Charters etc and other laws it seems the EU moves at the pace of a snail and yet when it comes to votes or taking action to increase the gravy train or stop people finding out how much MEPs claim in expenses they move at the speed of lightening.

But then again abused children have no voice so it's unlikely an MEP will ever face to explain why they turned a blind eye whereas a rich businessman will always have the ear of an MEP.

[JCSkinner]

Journalists and party hacks and various of the great and good populate and lurk on this site.
If they were all to exercise their influences over various MEPs on this issue, which is one we can surely all support Ms Sinnott on, then I think we might well see movement.

[The Earl of Desmond]

Journalists and party hacks and various of the great and good populate and lurk on this site.
If they were all to exercise their influences over various MEPs on this issue, which is one we can surely all support Ms Sinnott on, then I think we might well see movement.

Well feel free to tell them - the Written Declaration needs I think 400 signatures but has only about half. I can't imagine any MEP would refuse to sign it except of course the Tory MEP I emailed this afternoon whose 'family member on the EU payroll' told me he has a rule to never ever sign Written Declarations no matter what the subject which is bizarre.

I think I'll email David Cameron about him.

[corkman2007]

It certainly illustrates the myth that is the EU citizens rights charter. Absolute unadulterated guff .

That Charter doesn't have legally binding effect at the moment. Vote 'Yes' to Lisbon and it will.

In the meantime, nobody should be trying to make political points about the EU over this issue. If you're that concerned contact the Bulgarian Embassy or your MEPs and let them know how you feel:

Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria
22 Burlington Road
Dublin 4
Tel.: (00353 1) 6603293
Fax: (00353 1) 6603915
E-mail: bgemb@eircom.net

[The Earl of Desmond]

It certainly illustrates the myth that is the EU citizens rights charter. Absolute unadulterated guff .

That Charter doesn't have legally binding effect at the moment. Vote 'Yes' to Lisbon and it will.

In the meantime, neither of us should be trying to make political points about the EU over this issue. If you're that concerned contact the Bulgarian Embassy and let them know how you feel:

Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria
22 Burlington Road
Dublin 4
Tel.: (00353 1) 6603293
Fax: (00353 1) 6603915
E-mail: bgemb@eircom.net

It shouldn't need a vote when children are being abused - you don't think anyone debated about taking those children out of that horror in Austria in case doing so impinged on some law or something. No. They saw horrific abuse of children and acted the moment it became known.

If it was left to the EU those children would probably still be i nthe cellar while a committee was set up to think about what to do.

[odie1kanobe]

Journalists and party hacks and various of the great and good populate and lurk on this site.
If they were all to exercise their influences over various MEPs on this issue, which is one we can surely all support Ms Sinnott on, then I think we might well see movement.

Well feel free to tell them - the Written Declaration needs I think 400 signatures but has only about half. I can't imagine any MEP would refuse to sign it except of course the Tory MEP I emailed this afternoon whose 'family member on the EU payroll' told me he has a rule to never ever sign Written Declarations no matter what the subject which is bizarre.

I think I'll email David Cameron about him.

Nope pretty savvy as sign it and at some point in time in the future someone uses the Written Declaration out of context and MEP gets pilored for signing it.

[The Earl of Desmond]

Journalists and party hacks and various of the great and good populate and lurk on this site.
If they were all to exercise their influences over various MEPs on this issue, which is one we can surely all support Ms Sinnott on, then I think we might well see movement.

Well feel free to tell them - the Written Declaration needs I think 400 signatures but has only about half. I can't imagine any MEP would refuse to sign it except of course the Tory MEP I emailed this afternoon whose 'family member on the EU payroll' told me he has a rule to never ever sign Written Declarations no matter what the subject which is bizarre.

I think I'll email David Cameron about him.

Nope pretty savvy as sign it and at some point in time in the future someone uses the Written Declaration out of context and MEP gets pilored for signing it.

How can you use a Written Declaration calling on the EU to use all the available agencies it already has and use the rules Bulgaria has already broken to prevent child abuse out of context?

Legally there are basic standards of care in the EU - Bulgaria has broken them and yet you've a better hope of getting blood fro ma stone then of getting the EU to act to implement its own rules and hold a member State to account.

If this abuse was in an non EU state then the EU would be screaming for intervention - what hold does Bulgaria have over the EU?

[corkman2007]

Why are you trying to blame the EU for the inaction of the Bulgarian government? Are you suggesting that the EU take authority over these institutions and people away from the Bulgarian government?

It's the responsibility of the Bulgarian government to deal with this, not the EU.

In any case, Bulgaria has signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Council of Europe (nothing to do with the EU) has responsibility for its enforcement.

Bulgaria has been a member of the Council of Europe since 1992 and ratified the ECHR in the same year. That's fifteen years before it joined the EU.

Why hasn't the Council of Europe taken action in all that time? Bulgaria's been a member for nearly 16 years, it's only been a member of the EU since 1st January 2007.

Stop trying to score cheap political points over human suffering.