The European Commission proposed, on Wednesday 7 December, that each EU country be obliged to recognize the rights of filiation already granted in another Member State, which would strengthen the protection of children from homoparental families.
The European executive’s proposal, which will be examined by MEPs and Member States, aims in particular to create “a European certificate of parentage” harmonized, the validity of which all of the Twenty-Seven would be required to accept. Children or their parents “could request this certificate from the Member State which established parentage and use it to prove their relationship in all the other Member States”. “Parentage established in one Member State should be recognized in all the others without any special procedure”writes the Commission in a communicated.
” The proposal is centered on the best interest and the rights of the child. It will bring legal clarity to all types of families who find themselves in a cross-border situation within the EU, whether because they move from one Member State to another to travel or reside there or because they have family members or property in another Member State. »
Parent in one country, parent in all others
“Currently, national legislation varies according to the Member States”particularly with regard to the rights of homoparental families, “which can create legal obstacles sometimes forcing families to initiate administrative or even legal procedures to obtain recognition of parentage, long and costly procedures with an uncertain outcome”deplores the European executive.
Beyond free movement, the text would allow children, wherever they are in the EU, “to benefit from the rights that derive from filiation in areas such as inheritance, maintenance obligations, custody rights or the right of parents to act as legal representatives for school or medical matters”, an objective set by the President of the European Commission as of September 2020: “If you are a parent in one country, you are a parent in all countries”had launched Ursula von der Leyen in front of the MEPs.
The adoption of the text will require the unanimity of the Member States, a challenge when several of them – Hungary and Poland in the lead – are extremely reluctant to recognize LGBT + rights. “We don’t want to change national jurisdiction. It’s not about changing the way we define what constitutes a family.” Where “the definition of adoption”but “to protect the rights of the child”pleaded the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders. If unanimity cannot be achieved, Brussels will seek to “strengthening cooperation” between states, he added.