Is the European Parenthood Certificate, endorsed by the European Parliament, a means to secretly promote adoption for same-sex couples that will result in psychological harm to children, as claimed by Romanian far-right senator Sorin Lavric? No, that's not true: The certificate aims to strengthen legal recognition of parenthood across the EU, including same-sex parents, but does not affect the states' laws on adoption or the definition of family.
The story originated from a video (archived here) published on TikTok by user @stop_cenzura on December 14, 2023, with a title in Romanian, translated into English by Lead Stories staff, that reads "BOMB Video!".
It opened, as translated by Lead Stories staff:
Next week, the European Parliament will vote on a law regarding the European Parenthood Certificate - not "paternity," which refers to a father, but "parenthood" which includes parents in general. The Commission and the Parliament are sly because they hide their true intentions with euphemistic language. (...) What they want is for homosexual couples to adopt children.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Dec 15 13:18:06 2023 UTC)
On December 14, 2023, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) overwhelmingly endorsed the draft legislation (archived here) for implementing the European Parenthood Certificate, with a decisive 366 votes in favor and 145 votes against. This tool, under deliberation since December 2022 (archived here), is designed to ensure the recognition of parenthood among member states, including diverse family structures, and same-sex parents.
After the vote, a European Parliament press release (archived here) stated that concerning the establishment of parenthood at a national level, member states will have the discretion to decide on matters such as accepting surrogacy. However, they will be obliged to acknowledge parenthood established by another EU country, regardless of the method of conception, birth circumstances, or the family structure that the child has.
The European Parenthood Certificate does not enable adoption for LGBT+ couples. Its purpose is safeguarding children's rights within the European Union and will not impact national family laws. Currently, two million children in the EU (archived here) may find themselves in a situation where their parents are not acknowledged as such in another member state.
Sorin Lavric, the senator asserting the claim in the TikTok video, is affiliated with the far-right party AUR and is known for expressing homophobic (archived here), sexist (archived here), and anti-vaccination remarks (archived here).
