Cavada and Gibault Are Making a Confusion Between the Romanian Orphans and Goods

Daniela Filipescu

A few MEPs were desperately trying to start again the international scandal regarding the situation of the Romanian orphans and the restart of intercountry adoptions.

The MEPs Jean Marie Cavada and Claire Gibault organized a long conference with European public and press which had as title “Towards European policy an adoption” but which In fact focused on the restart of intercountry adoption of Romanian children.

The organizers of the conference consider that the moratorium of the intercountry adoption imposed on Romania by European Parliament in 2001 is a stupidity. The two MEPs, one of each is the chairman of the Civil Liberties Committee in the European Parliament had as guest to this conference Franco Fratini, vice president of the European Commission and commissioner for justice and home affairs who, in a very diplomatic speech, spoke about the progress made by Romania regarding the situation of abandoned children and about the possibility to have a recommendation of the European Union regarding adoptions within the European Union. During this meeting, “Romania was cornered”, secretary of state Theodora Betrzi said. They presented a very tough and sad situation of the orphans in our country by which they motivated the need to restart intercountry adoptions.

They presented a film done by ITN, which showed old imagines from the Ungureni institution, which in fact was closed in 2001.

Another tactic that was used, completely unusual for the EP when a problem of another country is discussed, is the fact that the two Romanian officials present in the conference, Theodora Bertzi and Bogdan Panait were not allowed to sit at the speakers’ table. They could tell their views only at 5 p.m. in a conference which started at 9 a.m. and finished before 6 p.m.

The French MEP Cavada was very stressed, repeating extremely serious statements about the Romanian authorities of which they believe to be lying and presenting incorrect reports and threatened journalists that they would be sued if they make the slightest reference to the possibility that their motivation is related to lobby groups for itercountry adoptions.

More than that in another completely unusual behavior for a conference in the EP, Roelie Post, a civil servant who worked for 8 years in European Commission’s DG Enlargement on the Romanian children file was sent out by Mr Cavada apparently because she tried to harass a girl who was brought up in a Romanian orphanage.

Roelie Post who has been working for the Commission for 23 years says she only tried to find out why the girl was crying. Mrs Post declared, without wishing to give details that she had to call on the Belgium Police and the security services of the Commission regarding the intimidations and harassment from representatives of intercountry adoptions lobby.

The traces of tens of thousands of adopted children were lost.

“I believe they want the restart of adoption from Romania because the corruption is still asleep here and the system is not completely clean. The comparison between intercountry adoption and free movement of goods, services, people and money made by Claire Geboult, is an insult to all of us”, declared Theodora Bertzi.

Bertzi is said that the traces of 30.000 children adopted internationally between 1990-2001 were lost.