Statutory Benefits for Non Traditional Families in Romania in Relation to Child Rearing

Statutory Benefits for Non Traditional Families in Romania in Relation to Child Rearing Presented by: Dr. Floare Date: 23 February 2024 Family Statistics Regarding Romania - Source OECD. Stat • Total fertility rate (2021): 1.81 • Children aged 3-5 enrolled in pre- primary education or primary school (2020): 78.3% • Children aged 0-2 enrolled in formal childcare and pre- school (2019): 16.1% • Divorces per thousand people (crude divorce rate-2020): 1.2 • Mean age of women at childbirth (2021): 28.2 • Share of births outside of marriage (2020): 32.5% • Marriages per thousand people (crude marriage rate - 2020): 4.2 Data Regarding Family Structure in Romania - Proportion of children (aged 0-17) living with two parents (2018): 85.9% - Proportion of children (aged 0-17) living with a single parent (2018): 11% - Employment rate for all mothers (15-64 year olds) with at least one child under 15 (2019): 68.5% - Proportion of children (aged 0-14) that live in households where all adults are in employment (2018): 49.3% - Proportion of children (aged 0-14) that live in households where at least one adult is employed and one jobless (2018): 42.9% - Proportion of children (aged 0-14) that live in households with all adults jobless (2018): 7.9% The Traditional Perspective of Romanian Private Law - Family is based upon the freely consented marriage between spouses, their equality, as well as on the right and duty of parents to ensure the rearing and the education of their children. (art. 258 para. 1 Civil Code) - Marriage is the freely consented union between one man and one woman, concluded according to the legal requirements. (art. 259 para. 1 Civil Code) - Marriage between same-sex persons is forbidden. - Same-sex marriages contracted abroad either by Romanian or foreign citizens, are not recognized in Romania. (art. 277 paras. 1 and 2 Civil Code) Current Private Law Provisions On Non-Traditional Families - The joint exercise of parental authority by unmarried parents, either living together or separately. - Equal legal status for children born both in wedlock or outside it. - The possibility of adopting the previously adopted child of the opposite-sex consensual partner, after factually contributing to their rearing for at least 5 years (art. 6 par. 2c Law no. 273/2004). - Identical inheritance rights for biological children from marriage and from outside the marriage, as well as for adopted children. The Optics Of Romanian Social Law On Families - Single parent family - the family made up of a single person and the children in their care who live together (art. 2 par. 2 Law no. 277/2010 on the allowance for family support, art. 2 par. 2 Law no. 416/2001 on the guaranteed minimum income) - Families - (include) childless siblings who dwell together and who have no joint residence or domicile with their parents (art. 2 par. 3 Law no. 416/2001) - Family - (includes) the unmarried man and woman, with both their common and individual children, who live together (art. 2 par. 3 Law no. 277/2010, art. 2 par. 4 Law no. 416/2001) - Single person - unmarried, widowed, divorced, with a missing spouse, with a spouse under arrest or in prison, legal guardian, unmarried/widowed/divorced - art. 3 Law no. 277/2010 foster parent who is - Family - (includes) the unmarried man and woman who live and dwell together (art. 6 par. 1b pct. 3 Law no. 196/2016 on the minimum income for inclusion). - Children - (include) those entrusted for adoption, in foster care, under legal guardianship (art. 4 par. 1 Law no. 277/2010) Other Romanian Positive Law Provisions Applicable To Non-Traditional Families - The child rearing allowance and work leave (Government Emergency Decree no. 111/2010): • For persons who were entrusted a child for a future adoption or those who have already adopted a child. • - For foster parents or emergency foster parents. Law on domestic violence (Law no. 217/2003) - persons considered as family members: • Former spouses; siblings, the spouse's or former spouse's parents and children from other relationships. • People who have established similar relationships as those between spouses or between parents and children, current or former partners, no matter if they have ever lived together or not with the aggressor. • The partner's ascendants or descendants and their siblings. • The legal guardian or any other person who legally or factually exercises rights regarding the child's person. • The legal representative or any other person who cares for a person with a mental disorder, intellectual disability or physical handicap. Amounts Of Social Benefits For Non-Traditional Families In Romania - Allowance for child rearing: between 300 and 1,700 Euros monthly (85% of the average after-tax income gained in the last 12 months before the child's birth). - The allowance for families with underage children and limited means (Law no. 277/2010) - from a maximum equivalent to 104 Euro/month, for a single parent family with four or more children and an average monthly income of less than 48 Euro/month/person, to a minimum of 18 Euro/month, for a two- parent family with a single child and an average monthly income between 48 and 126 Euro/month/person. - The guaranteed social minimum income (Law no. 416/2001) varies between 62 Euro monthly for a single-person household and 127 Euro for a five- person household, with an extra 9 Euro monthly for each supplemental family member. - The first tier of the "minimum income for inclusion" (Law no. 196/2016) is for families earning less than 55 Euro monthly for the first person and 50% of that for each subsequent person: the aid for two-parent families is between 22 Euro monthly for one child and 88 Euro for four or more children, while the aid for single-parent families is between 24 Euro and 96 Euro. The second tier is for families earning between 55 Euro and 140 Euro monthly for the first person and 50% of that for each subsequent person, the aid for two-parent families is between 17 Euro monthly for one child and 68 Euro for four or more children, while the aid for single-parent households is between 22 Euro and 86 Euro. De Lege Ferenda Requirements - The European Court of Human Rights decision from May 23rd, 2023 (final on September 25th, 2023) – Buhuceanu and others v Romania (case no. 20081/19 and 20 others) - Romania has an obligation to provide a legal framework for the recognition and protection of same-sex relationships (par. 73) - States have a latitude for deciding only on the choice of means by which they offer legal recognition and protection to same-sex couples - it does not have to be marriage (par. 74) - All previous attempts to regulate civil partnerships in Romania were rejected (par. 14) CONCLUSIONS - Romanian private law has an apparently conservative perspective. - This presumptive conservative bias has been contradicted for decades by applicable statutory provisions which indirectly benefit non-traditional families (single-parent or unmarried couples). - The only major type of non-traditional family that has never been recognized by positive law - same sex couples. - Social law clearly recognizes as families a wide array of family-type structures: singleparent, different-sex consensual partnerships, couples/persons with non-biological children, adult siblings. - The Buhuceanu decision implies regulating very soon some kind of civil partnership that would also be accessible to same-sex couples.