407 signatures for pipe-line adoption cases declaration

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407 signatures for pipe-line adoption cases declaration

Oana Dan

More than 407 MEPs have signed a written declaration urging the Romanian government to end the plight of more than 1,000 Romanian orphans, following the initiative of MEPs Claire Gibault and Jean-Marie Cavada. These children have been adopted by European families but due to legal wrangling have not yet been allowed to join them, reads the document prepared by the two.

The declaration underlines that the moratorium imposed by the Romanian authorities has "brutally interrupted the processing of thousands of adoption requests" and considering that "children concerned by these requests have already have established relationships with their future adoptive families, this moratorium has, in effect, left them abandoned for the second time."

The Romanian authorities adopted a moratorium on international adoptions in June 2001 with retroactive effect from December 1, 2000, including a law on the protection of children which is very restrictive towards international adoptions. Gibault and Cavada decided to complete this document because of the lack of reaction of the Bucharest authorities to the resolution of the European Parliament.

The European Parliament in its resolution on the progress of Romania's accession process, adopted on December 15, 2005, urged the Romanian government "to address the adoption cases in progress when the moratorium was announced in June 2001."

Gibault, herself a mother through adoption, said that it was "very satisfying and also a great relief" that the EP has legitimized their initiative which sends a powerful signal to Romanian authorities.