Ekaterina Zaharieva to the Ambassador of Norway: Children Come First in our Culture and our Mentality, and they Belong in the Family
07 June 2018 News
Today, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva hosted the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway accredited for Bulgaria, Mrs Lise Nicoline Kleven Grevstad, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mrs Grevstad accepted the invitation of Bulgaria’s highest-ranking diplomat to meet in order to discuss the opportunities for cooperation between their respective governments and the institutions of their countries in relation to settling the issues Bulgarian nationals have encountered with the social and child protection services in Norway.
‘Children come first in our culture and our mentality, and they belong in the family,’ Minister Zaharieva highlighted at the beginning of their conversation. ‘We understand that each country tries to protect the rights of children in accordance with its own regulations. The cases of children who are Bulgarian nationals and have been taken from their parents are a cause of great concern to us though. We cannot understand why a brother and a sister have to be separated by hundreds of kilometres, and forbidden to see their mother or talk to her, which would doubtlessly lead to them drifting apart, and to their ties with their identity and mother tongue being severed. Thus, we would like to cooperate closely with your institutions to assist the families concerned,’ she added. In support of her statement, Minister Zaharieva presented Ambassador Grevstad with a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway, Mrs Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, proposing that joint consular consultations between the two countries MFAs be conducted.
The Ambassador of Norway expressed her gratitude for the invitation and for the positive approach of Bulgaria to this difficult situation, highlighting that – counter to what is claimed in the media – she found many similarities between the child protection systems of the two countries: both in Norway and in Bulgaria children are to be assisted by institutions in solving their problems, and only if that proves impossible are they to be taken from their parents, which is indeed a radical step. Ambassador Grevstad briefly explained the mechanisms behind the Norwegian child protection system, and proposed that, along with consultations, working seminars should be organized in Bulgaria in which Norwegian experts can work with families, NGOs and the Bulgarian competent authorities to clarify procedures.
Mrs Zaharieva and Mrs Grevstad agreed to have the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Bucharest cooperate in organising the consular consultations and the working seminars as soon as possible.
At the end of their meeting, Ambassador Grevstad took the opportunity to congratulate Bulgaria on its successful Presidency of the Council of the EU, and expressed her gratitude for the openness toward Norway, and the invitations for it to take part in different fora over the past few months. She noted that just a few weeks ago the government of Norway had launched the new programme under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism for Bulgaria for the 2014-2020 programming period.
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