EUROPE WANTS TO FORCE THE RE-OPENING OF ADOPTIONS

Article from Ziua Nov. 10, 2006

EUROPE WANTS TO FORCE THE RE-OPENING OF ADOPTIONS

The Hunt for Children

After Romania had been sharply criticized for the way in which international adoptions were done between 2000 and 2004, now some European Parliamentarians are vehemently demanding the re-opening of international adoptions. At the opening of a conference entitled "A European Policy of Adoptions" held yesterday, and organized by Europarliamentarians Claire Gibault and Jean-Marie Cavada, Romanian authorities were accused of using the fight against corruptions merely as a pretext for closing international adoptions. Gibault stated, "The issue of corruption is very important, but it should not become a mere pretext for sacrificing whole generations of children." Thus, in spite of the fact that the conference was supposed to be about European adoptions, the first session had more to do with the refusal of the Romanian authorities to re-open international adoptions.

Romania Will Not Give In

Theodora Bertzi, State Secretary for the Romanian Office for Adoptions, declared, "These are not pretexts. Such a position is inadmissible. Romania is going to maintain its position and respect the current law because this law is in conformity to European standards and is the only thing which can protect against the international adoption mechanisms which still exist in the world. It is the only legislation which can protect the children of Romania. The system of international adoptions which existed before is only in a temporary dormant state. The people who were involved in this are waiting for a change in the legislation so that they can once again start up their business. I was expecting something like this to happen. The Europarliamentarians Gibault and Cavada, who organized this colloquium, are trying to drag people into error. They said we were going to talk about European adoptions, but now they are talking about adoptions from Romania."

Parliamentarians Try To Stop The Tears

There were three young Romanians at the debate organized by these two Europarliamentarians. These young people spoke about the conditions in institutions. The first of these was Petrescu who was adopted in 1995 by a family from Great Britain. He had been institutionalized for 4 years at a center for handicapped children in Ungureni because he suffered from polio. Among the statements that this young person made were the following: "I was tied to the bed and my feed were bound. We did not receive sufficient food nor clothes and we were always dying of cold. When people from outside were coming to visit us, they put nice clothes on us. But afterward, these clothes were taken away from us and we continued to freeze." He was later invited to speak about the advantages which came from being adopted. Additionally, his adoptive mother said that the situation at the orphanage hadn't really changed much if at all. On the other hand, the head of the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, Bogdan Panait, said that the orphanage in Ungureni no longer falls under the system of child protection but rather is under the National Authority for Handicapped People. The 15 children who were there had been moved into a family type home in 2000. Panait declared, "I came to this conference very relaxed hoping to find out somethings about the policies of member states. I would ask that Romania not be shown as a negative example when it comes to the area of child protection. We have to remember that our system is very young, but we have made important progress. The system is not perfect and I have never maintained that it was."

Europarliamentarian Cavada stated that he will protect these witnesses and asked that the Romanian authorities would stop their slandering and threaten Romania with a lawsuit if they continue. Cavada acknowledged that progress had been made in Romania, but at the same time he said he was not impressed with their "publicity campaign". He said that he wishes to help Romania to continue the reforms. He added, "We are trying to help, but Romania refuses to believe that we want to help them." Europarliamentarians Gibault, Cavada and DeCombret had initiated a petition in which they asked for the re-opening of international adoptions.