WRITTEN QUESTION E-1225/02

by Alejandro Cercas (PSE) to the Council

(29 April 2002)

Subject: International adoptions in Romania

In view of the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on Romanian accession to the European Union, and the Romanian Government's emergency order of 7 December 2001:

1. What is the current state of affairs with regard to the international adoption procedures which had been suspended, and in particular, which cases are covered by the situation described in Article 1(1) of the Emergency Order of 7 December 2001?

2. What is the actual deadline for the resumption of international adoptions?

3. What are the possibilities that adoption procedures which were in progress in Romania before June 2001 might be resumed, for example those involving 11 families in Extremadura?

Joint answerto Written Questions E-1125/02 and E-1225/02

(30 September 2002)

The Council is aware of the sensitive nature of this issue and of the distress caused to Community families whose applications to adopt Romanian children had already been legally processed when the Romanian Government announced a moratorium on international adoptions in October 2001.

It is worth recalling that the suspension of international adoptions by the Romanian Government was a response to the concerns expressed by, amongst others, the European Commission over serious shortcomings in Romanian legislation and practice regarding such adoptions. The revised Accession Partnership for Romania, that was approved by the Council on 28 January 2002, stipulated that Romania should maintain the moratorium on international adoption in place until new legislation compatible with the best interests of the child and Romania's international obligations is adopted and the administrative capacity to implement the new legislation is ensured.

Whilst maintaining the general moratorium, in December 2001 the Romanian Government took measures to enable the completion of adoption procedures for those cases that were already subject to court procedures when international adoptions were suspended. According to the latest available information, all cases (including those of Community families) that had been decided upon by the courts or were still in court at the time when international adoptions were suspended in October 2001, have now been settled.

At the same time, the Romanian Government took measures to forward to the courts other cases that can be judged as exceptional circumstances. A total of 50 such cases have now been forwarded to the courts.

In April 2002 an independent working group presented a report on inter-country adoptions to the Romanian Government. Prime Minister Nastase has welcomed the report as a basis for future policy on international adoptions and has indicated that the package of laws proposed by the independent working group will be adopted by the end of 2002. In the meantime, steps will be taken to improve administrative capacity in order to implement this legislation.

The European Union, while taking note of these positive developments, will continue to monitor the situation closely and to address the issue in relevant fora, notably within the bodies established by the Europe Agreement between the EU and Romania.