The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU has invited Member States to give their views on different ways to strengthen the cross-border protection of vulnerable adults in the EU. In an internal document dated 13 October and seen by EUROPE, the Czech Presidency details several possible ways forward.
The only existing tool to date is the 2000 Hague Convention on the International Protection of Adults. It aims to protect persons with motor or mental disabilities by enabling them to determine the competent authorities and the applicable law or to ensure the recognition and implementation of protection measures in all the co-contracting states.
Eleven Member States have ratified it so far. The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, called in July for other Member States to do the same (see EUROPE 12991/8). Greece has since ratified the Convention.
A first possibility detailed by the Czech Presidency to strengthen its impact is simply to encourage other countries to ratify the Convention.
Forcing them to do so through an EU Council decision would be a second possibility.
As a third option, the Czech Presidency proposes a regulation that would provide a common framework of rules applicable in the EU. This would ensure the protection of vulnerable adults alongside the Convention.
A final possibility would be to combine the second and third options and thus oblige Member States to ratify the Convention while adopting a regulation to complement it.
The Commission has invited the Member States to comment on these different hypotheses.
Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders announced in July that the Commission would present an initiative on the subject in 2023 (see EUROPE 12991/8). The Czech Presidency’s document states that this should be done during the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU, i.e. in the first half of 2023. The Commission has confirmed this to EUROPE.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/3p2 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)