Commission recommends the EU recognise 8 additional countries as parties to the 1980 Hague Convention.

The European Commission proposed the EU accept Russia and seven more countries as parties to the 1980 Hague Convention on child abduction. If accepted by the Council the move will effectively extend protection for children in the EU to eight new countries: Russia, Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Gabon, Morocco, Seychelles and Singapore.

Article 38(4) of the 1980 Convention stipulates that the Convention applies between the acceding country and Contracting States that declare their acceptance of the accession. Therefore, the European Union has to decide whether to accept the accession of Russia and other countries. As the matter of international child abduction falls into the exclusive external competence of the European Union, the decision whether the EU, via its Member States, should accept other countries' accession to the 1980 Convention has to be taken by means of a Council Decision.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/1582&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en