Child adoption

The Romanian authorities are taking measures to improve the countrys child adoption legislation.

România Internațional, 03.02.2016, 13:27

Immediately after the 1989 anti-communist revolution, the situation of children abandoned in state institutions was making headlines in the Romanian and international press. To ease these childrens plight, many foreign families came to Romania and offered to adopt them. This often gave rise to abuses, with baroness Emma Nicholson, the European Unions rapporteur for Romania at the time, vehemently criticising the situation.

Amid scandals related to child trafficking, Bucharest eventually banned international adoptions in 2001, despite lobbying from certain states. Ten years later, the authorities again allowed international adoptions, provided certain conditions were met. In the meantime, the legislation continued to improve. A difficult adoption process, insufficient staff, the lack of interest, prejudice, the lack of juvenile courts – are some of the reasons why most of these children remain in the system until they come of age. At the moment, there are 60,000 orphans in Romania.

To encourage adoptions, the Chamber of Deputies committee for labour and social protection passed a bill that shortens deadlines and simplifies procedures so that children may be declared eligible for adoption sooner. Also, to help build a good relationship between a child and his or her new family, the committee has increased adoptive leave from 3 to 12 months. This amendment was supported by the Liberal MP Cristina Pocora:

“The older the adopted child is, the bigger his or her needs and emotional problems, whether the child has been in state or foster care.

The leave for adoptive parents is similar to the child-rearing leave and is granted on request, together with a monthly allowance of around 400 euros. The Social Democrat MP Adrian Solomon explains:

“For children under the age of two we will apply the same regulation as that for child-rearing allowance. For children over the age of two, the provision for the adoptive leave will apply.

Prospective adoptive parents who do not manage to adopt after one year will have another year under the new bill before having to renew their application. The main reason for the new changes is the fact that not many children over the age of two get to be adopted. The majority of the 1,700 applications for adoptions are for children under the age of two. Of the 3,800 children eligible for adoption, only 200 are under two years of age.

(Translated by C. Mateescu)