WRITTEN QUESTION E-1125/02 by Isidoro Sánchez García (ELDR) to the Council. Adoption of children in Romania.
Date: 2002-04-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Romania, Spain, accession to the European Union, child protection, international adoption

12.12.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 309 E/87

Does the Council take the view that this statement is in accordance with international law, especially in the
light of:

(cid:1) UN Security Council Resolution 984 (1995), adopted at its 3514th meeting (on 11 April 1995), and
particularly point 1 thereof:
’Takes notewith appreciation of the statements made by each of the
nuclear-weapon States (S/1995/261, S/1995/262, S/1995/263, S/1995/264, S/1995/265), in which
they give security assurances against the use of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear-weapon States that
are Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons’;

(cid:1) the statement made by the United Kingdom that it ‘will not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-
weapon States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons except in the case of
an invasion or any other attack on the United Kingdom, its dependent territories, its armed forces or
other troops, its allies or on a State towards which it has a security commitment, carried out or
sustained by such a non-nuclear-weapon State in association or alliance with a nuclear-weapon State’;

(cid:1) the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (8 July 1996) on the request made by the
United Nations General Assembly on the question of the legality of a threat or use of nuclear
weapons, and particularly its judgments that ‘a threat or use of force by means of nuclear weapons
that is contrary to Article 2 paragraph 4 of the United Nations Charter and that fails to meet all the
requirements of Article 51, is unlawful’, and ‘that the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally
be contrary to the rules of international
law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the
principles and rules of humanitarian law’; furthermore, the ICJ interpreted the UN Charter to the effect
that ‘the notion of’threat‘and’use‘of force in Article 2, paragraph 4 of the Charter stand together in the
sense that if use of force itself in a given case is unlawful (cid:1) for whatever reason (cid:1) the threat to use
such force will be likewise unlawful’?

Reply

(3 October 2002)

It is not for the Council to comment on statements by the Defence Secretary of the United Kingdom.

The Council remains convinced that Iraq must apply fully and without any conditions or preconditions the
Resolutions of the UN Security Council, in particular Resolutions 687, 1284 and 1382.

(2002/C 309 E/101)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1125/02

by Isidoro Sánchez García (ELDR) to the Council

(18 April 2002)

Subject: Adoption of children in Romania

The Romanian Government’s change of attitude over finalising the adoption of children has caused parents
in some Member States some distress.

Everybody knows that some Community couples had gone through all the necessary official paperwork for
adoption through the Romanian authorities, paperwork which takes a certain time to conclude; but a
Child Protection Law recently adopted in Romania quite unexpectedly and incomprehensibly is holding up
the government’s final decision. The coming into force of this law goes hand in hand with claims of
violations of adoption legislation by the Romanian Government, which has produced a disproportionate
outcry in Romania. All this makes it impossible for Community couples, particularly in Spain, to legally
adopt Romanian children, including parents whose requests had already been processed by the Romanian
Adoptions Committee and who had been assigned specific children. The result is uncertainty and concern
within these families, whose hearts are set on adopting children, and who find that they are being
prevented from doing so.

C 309 E/88

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

12.12.2002

Furthermore, 19 adoption requests have recently gone before the Romanian courts, 17 of them for US
parents, a fact which has caused indignation amongst the Spanish families referred to above, because of
the inequality of treatment it presupposes.

Since Romania is a candidate for EU membership, whose accession to the Community has been queried
thanks to the adoption issue, what steps does the Council intend to take to get the Romanian Government
to regularise the situation of legally processed adoption requests from Community families, particularly in
Spain?

(2002/C 309 E/102)

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 answer
to 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.