EUROPARLIAMENTARIANS ASK FOR INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS

Article translated from BBC Romanian.com October 18, 2006

EUROPARLIAMENTARIANS ASK FOR INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS

A group of French Europarliamentarians ask Romanian authorities to revise legislation which forbidsalmost all international adoptions. Jean Marie Cavada and Claire Gibault presented Romanianofficials, including Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, a list of signatures, over 400 of the 632 Europarliamentarians, who maintain their position of changing the Romanian law.

Emma Nicholson says the problem of the children is one that is to be resolved by nationalsovereignty, and doesn't enter into the competence of the European Union.

For two French Europarliamentarians, there are two reasons why Romania should allow foreign citizens to adopt Romanian children.

The first one is that the Romanian government does not have sufficient money to keep the thousands of abandoned children in orphanages nor does it have enough money to prepare and pay social workers and medical people to care for these children, nor does the government have the money to offer these children the best conditions of hygiene and education. These officials did recognize that the situation in the orphanages is not the same nightmare that it was said to be several years ago by the foreign press.

The second reason given by the Europarliamentarians is that many children are not adopted here because of very difficult procedures in adoption or because of different problems that the children have. On the basis of these two arguments, Jean-Marie Cavada proposed that the European Commission suggest a law which would permit the re-opening of adoptions, if not international ones at least inter-European ones. The European sentiment has changed a great deal. They are not of the same opinion that they were when international adoptions were forbidden. I know many Romanian families who wish to adopt, but wouldn't it be just as simple to adopt a new European law which would be valid in Romania when Romania is part of the European Union, which says that any adoptable child in a member country of the EU is able to be adopted by any citizen from any member state. As a refutation, the head of the National Authority for Child Protection, Bogdan Panait, says that official statistics indicate that the number of children being adopted has grown only after the closing of international adoptions. British Europarliamentarian Emma Nicholson, who fought for the stoppage of international adoptions from Romania, says that, "The problem of the children is one which has to do with national sovereignty and that it is not in the competence of the European Union to resolve it. The European Union has many responsibilities but not the problem of children in its member states. All the social problems need to be resolved by the authorities in these member states. In other words, Brussels cannot decide anything about the problems of children in Romania." Prime Minister Tariceanu declared at a meeting on Tuesday that Romania will maintain the current policy with regard to adoptions and will give more money for improved services in this domain.