EP Adopts Pro-International Adoption Declaration

The document was developed following the initiative of MEPs Claire Gibaultand Jean-Marie Cavada.

According to the document, the pipe-line cases are children who have been adopted by European families but due to legal wrangling have not yet been allowed to join them.

The document reads 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 inJune 2001 with retroactive effect from December 1, 2000, including a law on the protection of children which is very restrictive as far as international adoptions are concerned.

Gibault and Cavada decided to complete this document because of the lack of reaction of the Bucharest authorities to the resolution of the EP.

In its resolution adopted on December 15th, 2005 for the progress of Romania's accession process, the EP 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.

Baroness Emma Nicholson, former rapporteur of the EP for Romania, pointed out that there are inaccuracies in the document, explaining that the international adoptions created a black market in Romania, on which children were being trafficked.

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