MEP Victor Negrescu and Save the Children Romania organised a conference in the European Parliament, in early November, dedicated to Romanian children whose parents have gone to work in another EU member state. The event was attended by representatives of the European Commission, MEPs from several member states, as well as representatives of the Romanian Parliament and the Minister for Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities, Natalia Intotero.

According to statistics published by Save the Children Romania, almost 1 million children in Romania have at least one parent living abroad. At the same time, according to the organisation’s most recent report, which also includes proposals to support this target group, the economic migration of parents generates social, emotional and even economic consequences in the long term, as it is “a haemorrhage of human resources and, at the same time, a tragedy for children who internalise traumas they do not understand”.

“I have been involved for many years in supporting European policies for children and I was the author of the proposal whereby projects for children with parents in the diaspora should benefit from European funds. I debated this issue in the European Parliament, in the presence of the European Commission, in order to reinforce the need for a coherent and systemic response at European level to a phenomenon with serious consequences on the emotional health and development of children in Romania as well as in many countries in our region. The discrepancy between public figures and data collected by civil society is huge. We are talking about tens of thousands of children, others would even say hundreds of thousands. But even if we refer to the data presented by the authorities, we are in a situation where we have thousands of children without constant support, not even financial, from their parents” said  the Social Democrat MEP Victor Negrescu.

Save the Children Romania gives priority to programmes dedicated to these children and addresses the complex aspects of their legal, social, educational and psychological safety. However, the organisation stressed the need for a unified, pan-European approach.

Therefore, during the meeting, Victor Negrescu called for specialised European resources to support these children, as well as for the establishment of a European working group, under the coordination of the European Commission, to identify the best solutions and common measures at European level.