Government approved a draft law to streamline domestic and international adoptions
Government approved a draft law to streamline domestic and international adoptions
Thursday, September 17, 2015
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The Government approved in its Wednesday's sitting a draft law to make domestic and international adoptions faster and more flexible, a release of the Executive informs.
An adoption currently takes 14 to 15 months on the average; the intention is to shorten as much as possible the waiting for children and adopting parents, National Authority for Children's Rights Protection and Adoption president Gabriela Coman explained in a briefing at the Government. She mentioned that 480 children have been adopted last year.
The draft law regulates situations when biological parents refuse to attend two court terms; this is considered as an abusive refusal of consent to adoption, and the child will be pronounced adoptable. Adoption is also possible when parents or identified relatives declare they refuse to take care of a child, but later refuse to sign the declarations of consent to adoption; also, if parents or relatives up to 4th degree are not found.
The 2-year term for the validity of the adoptable child status will be eliminated; the child can be adopted any time before the age of 14, after a court rules adoption is possible.
The new legislation provides for a paid accommodation leave up to 90 days for any of the spouses in the adopting family, with a monthly allowance of 3,300 lei. Also, adopters get up to 40 hours per year without wage penalties for evaluations necessary for issuing the adoption certificate and for practical matching.
The law will enter into force after the publication in the Official Journal of Romania sometime in 2016.