Cashman (PSE). - Mr President, I should like to thank the Commissioner
for his attendance at such a late hour.

We have heard a reference to abduction, but of course abduction takes
many forms and can be subtle. Mrs Banotti has raised the issue of a
constituent of mine, Mr Guy Foster; and allow me to summarise the case
because it concerns real human lives.

Mr Foster has been denied access to his child ever since his German
wife returned to Germany with the child following their divorce. The
agreement was for the mother to have the right of abode over the son
and for Mr Foster to have full visiting rights. However, once in
Germany, the mother neglected the child and spent time in psychatric
care, and the child was subsequently placed in the care of its maternal
grandmother.

Despite Mr Foster's persistent attempts to contact his son, he has been
cut off from him ever since, unable to speak with or visit him because
the mother and maternal grandparents have withheld information. A court
made a decision on this case, but he was given information about the
court appearance after the date. Documents were served in a foreign
language. The handing over of care to the grandmother was thus allowed
to proceed without Mr Foster being able to represent his views. I
believe he has been denied and is still being denied the fundamental
right to see this child and has been denied access to justice. This is
surely wrong in the eyes of those of us who believe that we should
always serve the best long-term interests of the child.

Mrs Gebhard referred to two key words: help and enable. We are fifteen
different Member States with different languages and different
cultures, but we must never use language as a means of excluding people
from the debate or denying them their rights. Therefore, I urge the
Commission to take action, to be imaginative at Community level and at
Member State level to ensure mutual recognition and judicial
cooperation, and to put an end to these tragic human cases, which have
consequences beyond our own time.