Information Note for Members of the European Parliament

The Official Report to the EU concerning Adoption and pending cases. This has caused much hardship to Romanian Orphans.

Information Note for Members of the European Parliament

International Adoptions of Romanian Children

Background

The initial Romanian legislation on adoptions contained loopholes and was proned to wrongdoings and corruption. Following the requests of the European Parliament, in October 2001, Romania introduced a moratorium on international adoptions. As there were a very large number of requests for adoption, in December 2001, the Government decided that “in exceptional situations, required by the best interest of the child [...] the Government can approve the transmission of certain applications for entrustment of international adoption to the competent courts”. On the basis of this decision, 1115 such exceptional cases were submitted to the courts and 1003 were approved (the rest of the families withdrew their applications)

On 6th of February 2004, the Romanian Government decided to halt completely all international adoptions until a new, coherent legal framework comes into force. The new law came into force on the 1st of January 2005. This law was welcomed by the European Parliament in its resolution of 16th of December 2004: “congratulates Romania on responding to international appeals and Parliament’s requests by introducing national child protection standards and strict rules to govern inter-country adoption”. The law was drafted in cooperation with international experts; it is founded on the best interest of the child and is fully in line with international conventions on this matter.

The new law provides that the cases that had already been sent to court (out of the 1115 mentioned above) were going to be judged on the basis of the old legislation. These were the so-called “pipe-line” cases and they resulted in international adoptions, as explained above in the first paragraph.

It is to be noted that even these cases appear to have breached international conventions, as the applicant families got directly in touch with the child (in view of adoption) or with the biological family, before the adoption procedure. As a an example of the difficult nature of international adoptions, the Romanian Office for Adoptions still awaits the post-adoption reports for 178 internationally adopted children.

On 16th of December 2004, the European Parliament also pointed out “that all families affected by the moratorium should continue to receive a reply and therefore supports the idea of creating an international commission to study certain cases in the near future”. Following proper consideration of the possible options, after consultation with the European Commission, the Government decided to establish an inter-ministerial working group to analyse each case thoroughly and to give the appropriate replies to the applicant families. This working group has started its work in August 2005.

The Working Group found that at the moment of the entry into force of the new legislation, there were 1399 registrations regarding international adoptions. These had not been considered “exceptional cases” under the old legislation, did not go through the procedures required by the old law for inter-country adoption and therefore, cannot be considered “pipe-line” cases; they will be referred to as “pending cases”.

On the 27th March 2006, this Working Group has finished the analysis of all cases. It has to be underlined that responses were sent to all the applicant families.

Results of the Working Group Established to Analyse the Pending Cases

As requested by the European Parliament, in its resolution of 15 December 2005, the Romanian Government settled all “the cases of applications for international adoption made during the moratorium […] ensuring that all cases are examined in the light of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Romanian Law on the Legal Status of Adoption, with the goal of allowing inter-country adoptions to take place, where justified and appropriate, in those special cases;”

Romanian law provides that the professionals in the General Directions for Social Assistance and Child Protection at county level establish an individualised protection plan for each child with the following objectives, in their order of priority (which is the same as in the relevant international conventions):

the reintegration of the child in the biological family
the integration of the child in the extended family (up to fourth-grade relatives)
adoption :
national adoption by Romanian or foreign nationals residents (fr. domiciliés) in Romania
international adoption by grandparents of the child, who reside abroad

The situation of the cases is very complicated, with many overlaps, which makes an accurate and clear presentation of the results somewhat difficult. We hope the following presentation is sufficiently clear. The 1399 registrations mentioned above refer to 1110 applicant families and 1092 children. As the analysis was done on the basis of the best interest of each child, the breakdown below refers to these 1092 children:

41 children were re-integrated within their biological family
12 children were integrated in the extended families (up to 4th grade – i.e. as far as aunts, uncles)
227 children were adopted nationally (the applications were submitted early by Romanian families on the basis of the old legislation; as explained above, they have been given priority)
132 are in the process of being adopted nationally (on the basis of the new legislation)
including 28 children in the process of being adopted by foreign citizens, with residence (fr. domicile) in Romania, who have established a truly strong relationship with the child
17 children had already been adopted internationally (as they had also been included in the 1115 cases mentioned in the first paragraph of this document)
8 children are under legal guardianship in Romania
12 children are (or will become this year) over 18 years old and therefore can be adopted as adults (including, if desired, by foreign families)
90 children for which the families withdrew their requests
415 children are protected in foster families and are not adoptable (either, in most cases, the biological family does not consent to adoption, or there is a relationship with the biological family and the courts do not consider the children as adoptable)
83 children are in the child protection system (family type homes) and are not adoptable (same explanation as above)
including 8 children who are on medical treatment abroad and 1 studying abroad in the care of the foreign applicant families, with the agreement of the biological family/competent authority
2 children deceased
6 children were not identified
47 children for whom applications were submitted after 6th of February 2004, when all international adoptions were halted

In conclusion, the Romanian Government did its best to follow the positions expressed in the European Parliament resolutions during the last few years. It has adopted a proper legal framework, providing for strict rules on international adoptions. The “pipe-line” cases were judged by the courts and approved for international adoptions (except where the family withdrew the requests). It has established a working group to study thoroughly each and every one of the other pending cases. Following this analysis, replies were sent to all the families concerned. The analysis was done on the basis of the current legislation and, where this legislation allows it and when justified and appropriate, a number of foreign nationals are in the process of adopting children. There are very few special cases (separated brothers, children under medical care) where, although the law does not allow international adoptions, the Romanian authorities, in cooperation with the biological family, the applicant family and the government of their state of citizenship is working out a solution in the best interest of the child.

For more information, please contact Mrs. Theodora.Bertzi@adoptiiromania.ro or Ms Laura.Vioreanu@adoptiiromania.ro