Brussels, 16/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 17 October, the Socialist group at the European Parliament is organising a conference on "Children first". The President of the group, Henrique Baron will open the conference and EP Vice President, Gerhard Schmid, will close it. The conference will focus on "Children and enlargement", with speeches by Vice President of the European Commission, Neil Kinnock, the Lithuanian MP and President of "Save the Children Lithuania", Aloyzas Sakalas and the Director of the European Roma Rights Center, Angela Koncze; other participants and speeches on A Future for the Children of Central and Eastern Europe, with Deputy Director of the UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe, Shahnaz Kianian-Firouzgar, the Ombudsman of the Ukraine, Nina Karpachova and Adrian Severin, Emeritus President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. NGOs will also be giving an outline of their projects throughout the day.
A press statement by the Socialist group indicated that children make up the most vulnerable section of the population in Central and Eastern Europe: almost 18 million children in these countries live in households with an income of less than EUR 2.5 a day. Access to education and the quality of education have suffered, especially in rural areas. About I million children are living on the streets and this number is increasing. (Info: Rob van de Water, Tel +32 2 284 3138/3144 E-Mail: rvandewater@europarl.eu.int).