New adoption law makes it possible for Romanians abroad to adopt children from Romania

New adoption law makes it possible for Romanians abroad to adopt children from Romania

Date: 25-11-2011

The new adoption law stipulates the possibility that Romanian citizens residing abroad should adopt children from Romania, said Secretary of State with the Romanian Office for Adoptions Bogdan Panait. But he added that, as for the international adoptions for foreign citizens, the regulations are the same as in the old legislation.

'International adoptions for foreign citizens are the ones in the old law, therefore no change has been made in this respect,' said Panait. The Secretary of State said that the Romanian citizens residing abroad could resort to adoptions in Romania.

He also made it clear that the new adoption law stipulated the possibility for a child to be adopted 30 days after its birth certificate was issued, in case it has no declared parents. As for the time it takes to carry out adoption procedures, Panait said that it might take a shorter time in the future.

'In principle, adoptions in Romania take a shorter time than in other states, about one year and four months, but we think that about one year, one year and two months, possibly one year. It will be regulated,' said the Secretary of State.

He added that there were about 67,000 children in the protection system and currently there were about 1,700 families that want to adopt children. The Secretary of state with the Romanian Office for Adoptions on Wednesday, in Parliament, met representatives of the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament (EP).

Chairperson of the EP Committee on Petitions Erminia Mazzoni said that the body she heads received two petitions on international adoptions. 'We have received two petitions dealing with this subject and have decided to put them aside as we realized that this question is of national competence. We can only suggest to support the openness of the law to international adoptions, but we cannot interfere in a national question,' she added.

The EP Committee on Petitions also had a meeting with the commissions on abuses of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.