Current information January 2023
Amendments and additions to the Family Code of the Republic of Bulgaria
We inform you that in State Gazette No. 106 of December 22, 2023 the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Family Code was promulgated.
- With an amendment in Art. 79 – Difference in age – in addition to the minimum age difference of 15 years between adoptee and adopter, a maximum age difference of 50 years has been introduced. The age difference is not required for adoption by spouses when it exists for one of them.
- With an amendment in Art. 104, the period of post-adoption monitoring from two years becomes 3 years. 6 post-adoption reports will be required every six months. Pursuant to §36 of the Transitional and Final Provisions, the procedures started before December, 31, 2023 are completed according to the current order.
- With an amendment in Art. 105 – Right to information about the origin – the adoptive parents, the adoptee who has reached the age of 18, his descendants and spouse, are given the opportunity to request from the district court, which issued the decision to admit the adoption, that they be provided with information about the biological parents. The District Court, after notifying the biological parents of the adopted child, without his/her presence, issues a decision.
- New Art. 105 a – Mediation regarding the origin of adopted persons is created. Mediation can be carried out by non-profit organizations that have received an intermediary permit. The mediation will be carried out at the request of the adoptive parents, the adopted child and his descendants and includes counseling to make contact with the biological parents in an appropriate way and support the meetings of the adopted child with them. The terms and conditions for this mediation will be determined by an Ordinance within six months.
- From January 1, 2025, an Electronic Information System for full adoption will be created. Based on a court decision, children whose parents requested reintegration within the 6-month registration period, but did not meet the conditions for this due to failure to provide assistance to the social services, will also be registered in the EISystem.
Current information October 2022
Statistics on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the 1993 Hague Convention for the Republic of Bulgaria.
In September 2022 it was 20 years since Bulgaria is part of the Hague Convention.
The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Bulgaria is proud to be part of this Agreement and for all the procedures and opportunities that have been developed in these years.
In 2003 alone, 84 children and 1,129 families have been registered in the Adoption Registries.
The statistics indicate that in this 20-year period, 8,043 minors and 8,630 families have entered the International Adoption Registries. There have been 558 meetings of the International Adoption Council and more than 6,030 minors have been adopted.
The countries that have received the most allocations are:
USA -1387 Spain – 342
Italy – 1128 Greece – 244
France – 363
The years between 2011 and 2014 are marked by the largest number of refferals, about 430 assignments per year.
As of 2015 the refferals have started to go down, to reach their biggest drop in 2020. Due to the Corona virus pandemic, the number of allocations this year has dropped to 135. But despite this situation, Bulgaria did not close its adoption procedures and both the Ministry of Justice As ECAIs, we learned to work under conditions of restrictions and protection measures.
Since last year /2021/ the number of assignments has started encrease reaching 175 for 215 minors in the past year and this trend is observed
during the current year.
Statistics of registrations in the registers of minors and families and procedures in the period 01.01-30.09.2022.
During the 2022 in the Ministry of Justice, a normalization of the processes is observed, a slight movement in the situation and a new increase in the number of assignments and minors in the adoption records.
Until October 2022, 156 files of 156 files of minors have entered the Adoption Registry, 116,116 refferals have been made for 163 minors, of which 73 on special measures.
The total number of family file files has dropped considerably and there are currently 505 families on the list, of which only 310 have active projects. The number of new records that enter each year has dropped considerably.
The first 50 family files that are reviewed at the current time at the current time are registered registered until 06/04/2015 until 06/04/2015.
SUMMARY BY THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE’S INFORMATION
During the year 2021, a total of 161 consents from the Minister of Justice have been signed. 20 of them for families from Spain.
51 are the procedures according to the special adoption measures.
70 are clinically healthy minors.
21 are minors under 2 years of age.
*The specific ones in the state of mental and physical health of minors are protected as sensitive personal data.
Among the most common characteristics that children suffer are: premature birth; low birth weight; negligence; delay in mental and motor development; cleft lip and palate, different malformations, behavioral disorders; facial deformities; Dawn’s syndrome etc.
Association AMOR