Government opposes resumption of international adoptions

October 16. 2009

Mediafax

The Romanian government opposes resumption of international adoptions after receiving a memorandum from the Romanian Adoption Office (ORA) proposing their resumption.

"The current government has not debated the memorandum and therefore has not made a decision. Acting Prime Minister Emil Boc believes the present laws on international adoptions are in accord with international legislation and European standards," a government statement today (Fri) said.

ORA State Secretary Bogdan Panait had no comment on the government's statement but said the document had been submitted only to ask for its view on the issue.

Panait said ORA had proposed international adoptions only in cases of repeated failures of national adoption attempts.

The document said that there were still certain classes of "hard to adopt" children, for whom the current legal framework did not allow identification of adequate and permanent care solutions.

Those classes included children older than six, children belonging to ethnic minorities, children with serious medical problems, and groups of more than two siblings who could not be reintegrated into their families, for whom Romanian foster families could not be found and who would therefore remain in the special protection system until they were 18, according to the document.