Families across borders: untangling the knot

Birth, death, family, marriage and sometimes divorce are the core experiences of our lives, bringing joy and sorrow, love and disillusion. But they are also legal issues. Over centuries, States have developed laws and practices to regulate them but as more and more Europeans' move abroad the resulting legal patchwork can mean at best a complication of life, at worst a personal tragedy. MEPs, MPs and experts met this week to discuss “How to facilitate the life of European families and citizens”.

Some of the problems that can arise include:

• An unmarried couple, citizens of different countries, with children. One parent dies. Who gets custody of the children?

• One member of a gay couple, united with his partner in a recognised marriage in their home country, owns property in another country which does not recognise such marriages. They live in the property for years as their home, but when one dies, will the survivor own the property?

• Divorce of a couple from different countries: the ex-wife returns to her home country with the children. What are the father's rights of access to them? Can he enforce them?

Such cases are not rare, but the daily fare of lawyers dealing with family law and the law of succession. The answers may be far from simple, affected by countries of origin, countries of residence, administrative practices and a thousand other complications.

“As legislators we can make life easier for European citizens”, said Legal Affairs Committee chair Klaus-Heiner Lehne (EPP). “Life in a mobile Europe is not as simple as it should be”, argued Diana Wallis (ALDE). “If we simplify all the legal issues and more citizens take up the offer of free movement, this may benefit Europe’s economic capacity”, she added.

On the wide-ranging agenda was access to family cross-border justice, children’s and parents’ rights, divorce, succession, civil status, surrogacy agreements, abduction, forced marriages, honour crimes and same sex couples.

The Vice-President of the European Commission Viviane Reding said that “making free movement a tangible reality for all EU citizens” was a priority. She said that the European Certificate of succession will help citizens to exercise their rights of succession with one single document in all EU States.

Family Law

Law Professor Katharina Boele-Woeki gave the example of EU courts that cannot enforce a divorce that has been declared in another State because there is no such legal possibility.

Lawyer and Mediator Maria da Conceição Oliveira stressed the advantages of mediation - it being easier to recover confidence between parties, faster and also good for the interests of the children eventually involved. She also said there was a need to develop international mediation expertise and public incentives.

Richard Yung of the French Senate said "bi-national initiatives as a solution.  "We can move forward with 2, 3, 4, until we are 27". On same-sex marriages he said "we need EU legislation" that would encourage the recognition and enable us to advance in this debate.

Children's rights

Italian MEP Roberta Angelilli (EPP), the Parliament's Mediator for International Parental Child Abduction, said "there is no clear definition about what is meant by mediation. On the bases of the Stockholm Program, it would be very useful to reinforce the institution of the mediator".

Lawyer Christina Blacklaws said that "the general rule is that when one child is abducted in a Member State and taken to another, the origin country should continue to have jurisdiction on the child and the second should only have jurisdiction in very specific circumstances".

Civil Status: building Europe for families and citizens

Luigi Berlinguer (S&D) - the Vice-Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee - stressed the need to deal with deep practical difficulties citizens encounter. We don’t want to see homogenous legislations. We are talking about mutual trust, about mutual recognition”.

Chantal Nast (Director of the International Commission on Civil Status): What we want is that if you are in another country and someone says "can I see your birth certificate?", you can then get one from your national authorities, and the country you are in will understand it and accept it with normality”.

Next steps

Early 2011 will see the Commission's proposals for new legislation on matrimonial property rights, recognition of civil status documents (2013) and recognition and enforcement of decisions on parental responsibility.