June 10, 2004

US EMBASSY STATEMENT ON DRAFT ROMANIAN LEGISLATION ON INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS

The Embassy has learned through the press that the Prime Minister's proposal to ban, in essence, inter-country adoptions has been approved by the Juridical Committee of the Chamber of Deputies without meaningful change. We have, in turn, informed Washington.

If approved by the full Chamber, the Prime Minister's proposal will in effect remove inter-country adoptions as an option for assuring the future of Romania's abandoned children. We are not convinced that Romania has the capacity to absorb current numbers of abandoned and orphaned children through domestic means, absent recourse to long-term institutionalization, which clearly is not in the best interests of the child.

The recommendations of the U.S. Government on this matter have been offered in the spirit of helping Romania's abandoned children. Our recommendations would have provided flexibility in dealing with an ongoing human tragedy that Romania cannot yet handle on its own. We regret that the Prime Minister has rejected those recommendations and hope that the Chamber of Deputies will consider appropriate modifications, in the interest of these children, when it debates the bill.