WRITTEN QUESTION E-0712/02 by Encarnación Redondo Jiménez (PPE-DE) to the Commission. International adoptions in Romania.
Date: 2002-03-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, Romania, abandoned child, accession criteria, amendment of a law, child protection, financial aid, international adoption

C 92 E/20

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

17.4.2003

In assessing progress made by the candidate countries with regard to these criteria, the Commission
devotes particular attention to the respect for, and the implementation of, the various principles laid down
in the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. With the
exception of Latvia and Turkey, all candidate countries have ratified this convention. It is to be noted that
not all Member States have yet done so.

As of 1997, the Commission has regularly assessed progress made by the candidate countries in meeting
the Copenhagen criteria, first in its 1997 Opinions, and subsequently in its Regular Reports. In November
2001 the Commission concluded in its ‘Strategy Paper’ (1) that the Copenhagen political criteria ‘continue
to be met by all presently negotiating candidate countries. Turkey still does not meet these criteria.’

The regular assessment of progress made by the candidate countries in meeting the requirements set by the
Copenhagen political criteria has led to positive developments in all candidate countries, also as regards
respect for minority rights and the protection of minorities. Estonia and Latvia, for example, have further
progressed in the integration of non-citizens and continued to fulfil the Organisations for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recommendations regarding citizenship and naturalisation; due care will
need to be taken, however, to ensure that the implementation of existing language legislation takes place
in full respect of international standards. Moreover Latvia is expected to fully align its election legislation to
international standards in 2002. In Romania, new legislation extending the use of minority languages has
been approved and in Slovakia significant efforts in further developing approaches to protect minority
rights were taken.

As regards the Roma communities, discrimination in several candidate countries remains widespread and
they continue to experience difficult living conditions. At the same time, a number of encouraging
developments can be registered:
in all candidate countries with sizeable Roma communities, national
action plans to tackle these issues are now in place and in some countries national budgetary resources
have been reinforced. PHARE funding in this context has been considerably increased.

The rights of religious minorities are largely respected in the negotiating countries and the governments do
not restrict the observance of religious belief. In a few cases, new legislation on religious denomination is
still pending.

The educational systems in these 12 candidate countries largely provide for education in the minority
language (cid:1) e.g. in Estonia, the Law on Basic and Upper Secondary Schools also provides for continued
teaching in Russian. Latvia supports education both in Latvian and Russian and in 8 other minority
languages and implements a bilingual education program at the elementary school level in view of an
eventual transition to Latvian-language secondary education. Other examples are Romania, where presently
5 % of educational units teach in a minority language or the Slovak Republic, which in June 2001 has
ratified the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages.

(1) COM(2001) 700 final.

(2003/C 92 E/022)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0712/02

by Encarnación Redondo Jiménez (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: International adoptions in Romania

(14 March 2002)

In Romania, the number of international adoption request procedures in hand runs into thousands (there
are over a thousand from Spain alone). In 2001, the adoption of minors came to a complete standstill, and
in June 2001 the register of requests was closed. At the outset, those procedures which were waiting a
ruling, judgment and conformity with the Hague Convention etc., were allowed to continue, brought to an
end and returned to their respective countries of origin. Since then, the situation has worsened, and even
when the procedures have successfully gone through all the requisite stages, including a firm ruling in
favour of adoption, the children in question are denied authorisation to leave the country.

17.4.2003

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 92 E/21

Following the visits of the French and US Presidents and the Spanish Prime Minister to Romania, these
three countries managed to secure authorisation to bring some of the children concerned out of the
country, but there are huge numbers of procedures still blocked and of children awaiting adoption.

Is the Commission aware of the difficult situation of children in Romanian orphanages?

What measures does the Commission intend to adopt to help resolve this situation?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(29 April 2002)

The Commission is well aware of the situation of children in public care in Romania. Reform of the child
care system, focussing on decentralisation and de-institutionalisation, is well under way. The Government
has also substantially increased budgetary allocations for the system, as well as for subsidies to families
with children with the objective of
the
EUR 25 million PHARE 1999 Programme on Child Protection, which aims at closure of big old style
institutions by developing alternative local child protection services and a public awareness campaign on
prevention of abandonment and re-integration, should also lead to a significant improvement of child
protection in Romania. This programme will be followed by a similar programme for which
EUR 10 million have been committed in 2001.

reducing abandonment. The current

implementation of

As for intercountry adoptions, there was evidence that economic considerations and financial interests
played a role in the decisions that were taken at various stages of the procedure in Romania. In addition,
cases of trafficking in violation of the law were reported to the police and the courts. The Commission’s
2000 Regular Report (1) on Romania’s Progress towards Enlargement expressed concern about this. In the
face of this situation the Romanian government has taken a number of decisions that have led to the
suspension of international adoptions. In the 2001 Regular Report (2), the Commission welcomed this
moratorium and pointed to the need to reform legislation on international adoptions and to develop the
appropriate administrative structures and capacity in order to ensure that adoption decisions are made
exclusively in the best interest of the child. This should be done prior to international adoptions being
resumed.

The Commission can inform the Honourable Member that with respect to transitional measures, the
Romanian government has adopted an emergency ordinance on 6 December 2001, providing for the
completion of intercountry adoption procedures for cases that had already been dealt with, or were being
dealt with, by the courts when the moratorium was decided. This ordinance also allows the government to
forward pending cases to the courts in ‘exceptional circumstances’. The Romanian authorities are now
carefully considering which adoption cases may proceed and a substantial number of pending cases have
been resolved.

The Romanian authorities have committed themselves to reforming their legislation and developing the
appropriate administrative structures and capacity in order to ensure that in future adoption decisions will
be made in conformity with the new legislation, following transparent procedures and exclusively in the
best interest of the child. This should be done prior to international adoptions being resumed. In order to
achieve this objective, the Romanian authorities are receiving full and coordinated support from the
Commission, individual member states and third countries and the United Nations International Children
Emergency Fund (Unicef).

It must be stressed that the Commission has neither the competence nor the intention to deal with
individual cases involving international adoptions.

The Commission will continue to monitor the situation and provide assistance if requested.

(1) COM(2000) 710 final.
(2) COM(2001) 700 final.