Dealing with cross-border family relationships becomes easier

01. March 05

The new European Union regulation simplifying cross-border matters in family relationships goes into force today. 
The regulation goes into effect in the whole of the European Union and deals with court jurisdiction and court decision recognition and enforcement in law matters that concern matrimonial cases and parental responsibility. The regulation concerns the disputes related to marriage, also to the right of parental custody and meeting the child in cases where the disputing parties live in the different member states of the European Union (the so-called international family law disputes).

This regulation primarily determines where (to which court in which country) the person must turn to with his or her claims or requests. The basis is the so-called proximity criterion according to which the disputes will generally be solved in the member state where the child is domiciled. The regulation also determines under which conditions the court etc. decisions made in one member state are valid and enforced in another member state. The regulation is based on the principle of mutual trust between the member states, which means that not recognizing the court decisions of another member state requires special cases.

The new EU regulation also hastens the passing of custodial decisions in certain cases. This includes the decisions to bring back the child in cases where the child has been illegally taken to or left in the member state that is not the child's domicile. The court that receives a request can now immediately initiate the enforcement of a decision made in the other country, without checking that the decision's prerequisites were fulfilled in the country of origin. By getting rid of this time-consuming and costly stage, obstacles in cross-border court decision recognition and enforcement are significantly reduced. This means that the persons in whose favour a member state court has passed a decision can now claim their right not only quicker, but also with smaller expenses.

The regulation enforcement in each member state will be coordinated by central institutions on whom the regulation imposes greater obligations to cooperate and exchange information. In Estonia, the central institution will be the Ministry of Justice.


The previous regulation for the same field applied only to the disputes concerning custodial rights in cases where the child's parents had been married, the new regulation applies also in cases where the parents have not been married. However, the new regulation does not concern upkeep costs, which are covered with the Council regulation no. 44/2001.

 

Kristi Künnapas
Public Relations Division
Ministry of Justice
Tel. +372 6 208 118
GSM +372 56 215672