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The election of MEPs in July 2014 caused the selection of new members for the Petitions Committee. Fortunately, our main ‘champion’ remained: Latvian Tatjana Zdanoka MEP had been very helpful in getting the issue of state child-snatching put on the agenda and discussed, since Latvian Laila Brice had travelled specifically to see her.

Laila’s daughter had been taken from her by Merton Council in the UK, and her spirited mother hasn’t stopped fighting for her. I visited her Ambassador alongside her after having been in Brussels on 19 March, and eventually her Government formally approached the UK Government – the second only after Slovakia and before Lithuania.

But which country will be next?

The second presentation in November 2014 resulted in lots of verbal support which still needs to be turned into action.

A detailed report of my trip on that occasion is on the McKenzie Friends website:

• EP_Petitions in Brussels on Forced Adoptions and Child Snatching in the UK

Bruno Waterfield reported in The Telegraph:

• Parents fight British social services ‘gag’ to petition European Parliament
  Britain’s social services “unique” in EU for “threatening and bullying” of parents who speak out against forced adoption of their children, say MEPs.

The BBC reported:

• Adoption: Thousands of Children forcibly taken into Care.

Chairperson Cecilia Wikstrom MEP said on camera that this goes against the Charter of Fundamental Rights.