WRITTEN QUESTION E-2766/00

by John McCartin (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 September 2000)

Subject: Orphanages in Romania

Can the Commission provide information on the current situation regarding orphanages and children's institutions in Romania and outline what current action is being taken by the Commission through EU-funded projects for the improvement of such institutions, for child protection and for the reintegration of children into their own families or foster families?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(29 September 2000)

The Commission has been providing assistance to Romania, mainly through PHARE, to address the delicate situation of children in institutions since 1990. While in the early years humanitarian assistance (food aid, supply of heating oil, medicines, repairs and maintenance of institutions) was predominant, as it was necessitated by an emergency situation, programmes are now designed to address the structural situation and reform Romania's childcare policies. Developments in the situation have been described in the 1997 opinion on the accession of Romania(1) and in the 1998 and 1999 regular reports on Romania's progress towards accession(2). In particular, the 1999 regular report noted that living conditions in all childcare institutions had very seriously deteriorated in 1999 for financial and administrative reasons. The unclear and complicated division of responsibilities between the four central authorities involved in child protection and poor monitoring from the centre, as well as budgetary constraints, were identified as the main obstacles to progress.

In line with the 1999 regular report, a single authority (the National agency for protecting children's rights) was made responsible for all children in institutions, including those previously placed under the Ministries of Health and Education and the Department for handicapped persons. Management of all institutions was decentralised to the local authorities. Provisions were made to guarantee a sufficient budget for childcare, through a rectification of the 1999 state budget and re-allocations of the 2000 budget.

The Commission and the Romanian authorities are now designing a 25 million PHARE programme to support the current reform. Budgetary allocations for food and maintenance are the responsibility of the Romanian Government.

The PHARE child protection programme will have the following components: the creation and development of community integrated child welfare projects at local level, with special emphasis on preventing child abandonment and institutionalisation; the restructuring of the residential care institutions; technical assistance (possibly using Member States' expertise through twinning, i.e. the secondment of national experts to the government of Romania) to facilitate co-operation between the Ministry of Labour and social protection services (at central and local level) with childcare departments (at central and local level), in order to ensure that Romania's overall social protection policies are effective in providing support to families with children at risk, and preventing abandonment and institutionalisation of children; and a national public awareness campaign aimed at preventing abandonment of children and their re-integration into natural or foster families. It is expected that the various components of this programme will be ready for tendering and contracting before the end of the year.

(1) COM(97) 2003 final.

(2) COM(98) 702 final; COM(1999) 508 final.