Bulgaria Parliament eases adoptees' access to adoption records

SOFIA, Bulgaria – The Parliament adopted revisions to the Family Code that ease adoptees' access to their adoption records.

The revisions scrap the requirement for "significant circumstances" that can start the procedure for granting adoptees access to the information about their biological parents and broadens the scope of people who can request disclosure of this information.

The information can now be requested by the adoptee, the adoptive parents, the heirs and spouse of the adoptee.

Adoptees who are 18 and older, their heirs and spouse can ask the regional court that has allowed the adoption, to grant them access to the information about their origin.

The regional court will make a decision at a hearing behind closed door after notifying the biological parents of the adoptee's request and after hearing the position of a prosecutor.

The MPs also decided that not-for-profit organizations holding a permit from the Labour and Social Minister, can consult the adoptee and their biological parents as they establish contact.

The revisions also provide for the creation of a National electronic information system on adoptions and an electronic platform for prospective adopters.

Number of adopted children down by a half since 2013 Elissaveta Belobradova MP of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria commented for the press that the aim of the revisions is to streamline the adoption procedures.

She said the number of adopted children is declining steadily and has dropped by a half since 2013.

"It was very important for us to set up an integrated information system that is fully digital and ensures total transparency. Also, the process itself will be stepped up and as the administrative steps are digitized, people won't have to ferry around papers," she said. Belobradova called the adoption secrecy "a wound in every child's soul".

In a post in her social media, the chair of the parliamentary committee of labor, social and demographic policy, Denitsa Sacheva, wrote: "Seven years ago [fellow MP] Ekaterina Zaharieva and myself started this battle for changes in the Family Code that will benefit children who have been adopted or expect to be adopted. The two of us have adopted children and we know how important it is for them to know their origin so they can live free and self-confident. Adoptions is the cause of my life because my mother was adopted and she dedicated 50 years of her life to find her origin. It is to her that I dedicate this legislative victory." (PNA)