Romanian Senate Committees Propose New Amendment To Child Adoption Bill

05.03.2011 By Ioana Tudor

The Romanian Senate committees for labor and legal matters on Tuesday adopted an amendment to a bill regulating adoptions, whereby couples living abroad can adopt a child two years after procedures are started if two requirements are met.

The adoption will be possible if one of the prospective adoptive parents has Romanian citizenship and no one in Romania wants to adopt the child.

The bill regulating adoptions, which was put forward by the Government, will be sent for debates to the Senate. The Chamber of Deputies has the last say on the matter.

In early April, the Senate's committee for human rights supported the bill and approved several amendments regarding international adoptions.

The amendments concerning international adoptions state two situations: the adopter is a relative up to the fourth-degree of the child for whom internal adoption procedures were authorized; the adopter has Romanian citizenship too; the adopter is a European Union citizen.

People who are relatives up to the fourth-degree of the child and those who have Romanian citizenship can adopt the child two years after procedures are started. EU citizens can adopt a child four years after procedures are started.

The Government decided in March to reduce the length of child adoption procedures.

According to the decision, children whose biological parents are unknown can be adopted 30 days after birth certificates are issued, and children under state protection can be adopted after an interval of one year during which parents showed no sign of being interested in their children's situation.

Government spokeswoman Ioana Muntean said at that time the Executive did not amend regulations on international adoptions.