Access rights in the context of parental responsibility includes access rights for grandparents, the Advocate General states in conclusions returned on Thursday 12 April (case C-335/17).
A Ms Valcheva, a Bulgarian national, is the maternal grandmother of a minor child born in 2002. Since his parents’ divorce, the child has been habitually resident in Greece with his father, a Greek national. Having unsuccessfully applied to the Greek authorities, she applied to the Bulgarian courts for a determination of arrangements for her to exercise rights of access to her grandson.
The Bulgarian courts of first instance and appeal dismissed the action on the basis of lack of jurisdiction, on the grounds that the EU Regulation ‘Brussels IIa’ (22012003) provides for the jurisdiction of the courts of the member state in which the child has his habitual residence, in this case in Greece.
Hearing the case at last instance, the Bulgarian Supreme Court of Cassation took the view that in order to determine the court with jurisdiction, it is essential to ascertain whether or not the ‘Brussels IIa’ Regulation applies to grandparents’ access rights.
In his conclusions, Maciej Szpunar reiterates the fundamental importance which the ‘Brussels IIa’ Regulation attributes to the principle of the primacy of the best interests of the child.
The Advocate General also stresses the importance of ensuring that discussions on jurisdiction in applications for access rights for persons other than the parents are not made on the basis of unharmonised national rules. He also cites The Hague Convention of 1996 on parental responsibility, which adopts a broad concept of access rights.
Szpunar therefore advises the Court to judge that the notion of rights of access to a minor child includes persons other than the parents, if these persons have family ties to the child based on law and fact. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)