A million children in central and eastern Europe now have the state as parent. That is half a million more than in 1989. "If living conditions go on getting worse, the number of children in care is bound to increase," says Cristian Tabacaru, formerly a state secretary in the Romanian child protection department. His duties have been taken over by the National Agency for Child Protection under a reform imposed by the European Union as a condition for opening accession negotiations with Romania. With responsibility scattered among various ministries, the EU was anxious to bring all 147,000 children in state care (including 30,000 placed in foster homes) under a single authority.