European justice ministers discussed the recognition of parentage within a family between the different EU Member States on Friday 4 February in Lille. The French Presidency of the Council of the EU (FPEU) wanted to put this discussion on the ministers’ agenda to prepare the ground for the European Commission’s future work on this subject.
The Commission plans to publish an initiative by the end of the year, after carrying out a public consultation on the subject last year. EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said he was not yet in a position to say whether it would be a legislative text or not.
According to French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, the issue remains sensitive in some Member States, but there is a “willingness to work on it” among all countries. Hungary, on the other hand, is cooler on this European initiative, according to one source.
“I think it is important that a child-centred approach has been developed when the Commission presents its initiative”, noted Didier Reynders. Mr Dupond-Moretti also stressed, even before the discussions, that it was not a question of imposing rules of parentage on each country. It would only be a matter of recognising everywhere, in the same way, the links of parentage established in a country and of respecting them.
Joint child abduction alert system
Ministers also discussed child abduction arrangements with the aim of moving towards a common system in this area. “If the kidnapper crosses a border, he is no longer under the radar”, the French minister said. Currently, only 16 countries have an abduction alert system in place and these systems are very diverse.
Spain’s justice minister, Pilar Llop, also stressed the need for a common instrument, while pointing out that it had yet to be established how each country defines the abduction of minors. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)