A project for a new Family Code was approved by the Council of Ministers on March 26 2008, mediapool.bg said.

The project, which is to be approved by Parliament, will ease the adoption process and introduce prenuptial agreements for the first time in Bulgaria's legal history.

Another radical change is the introduction of a definition of non-marital cohabitation, a situation that has triggered legal consequences involving parenting disputes.

According to the document, a child can be adopted without the consent of his/her biological parent if the child has been left by the parent in a state institution for more than six months or if the parent has not made any attempt to reclaim the child or change the child's legal status.

The new Code's aim is to shorten the time children spend in state institutions. Organisations accredited by the Justice Ministry to serve as intermediaries in the process have cited this as one of the main problems surrounding international adoptions in Bulgaria 

The document envisages the formation of a register containing information about candidates for child adoption and an information system with the names of available children.

Children could be adopted by non-Bulgarians only if they there are no eligible candidates inside the country. Children will be given the right of an opinion on all matters concerning them, including adoptions.

The prenuptial agreement could be changed in the course of the marriage, the document says. The provision that spouses should wait at least three years from the start of the the marriage before divorcing on mutual consent has been cancelled.