On Tuesday 18 February, MEPs on the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) adopted a number of oral questions for the Commission and the EU Council to clarify the state of negotiations on the regulation on the cross-border recognition of parenthood.
The aim of the European Commission’s proposal issued in December 2022 (see EUROPE 13079/9) is to ensure that parenthood recognised in one Member State is automatically valid throughout the Union.
In December 2023, Parliament had already expressed its support (see EUROPE 13314/20), but as the text comes under family law, it constitutes a national competence that requires unanimity in the EU Council, where it is still under discussion.
Through these oral questions submitted by the Chair of the JURI Committee, Ilhan Kyuchyuk (Renew Europe, Bulgarian), MEPs are seeking clarification on the persistent blockages in the Member States and possible solutions in asking: what progress has been made? Which parts of the text have already been agreed?
“The European Parliament wants to accelerate this proposal for a regulation, while some Member States (...) are blocking it for ideological reasons”, said MEP Mario Furore (The Left, Italian) in a statement.
The main opposition concerns the recognition of children born through surrogacy and those from same-sex families.
Several Member States - such as Italy, Estonia, Slovenia and Croatia - refuse automatic recognition of surrogacy, considering that this would call into question their national legislation (see EUROPE 13432/8). MEPs are therefore questioning the EU Council on the solutions envisaged to overcome these disagreements.
Given the impasse, an alternative would be to activate enhanced cooperation, as provided for in Article 20 of the TEU and Articles 326 to 334 of the TFEU. This mechanism would allow a group of Member States to adopt the regulation without the need for unanimity.
MEPs ask the Commission: are you actively facilitating discussions? If negotiations fail, MEPs want to know whether the Commission is prepared to use other legislative tools to achieve the objectives of the regulation.
The oral questions were adopted with the support of all groups except Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ENS). The Conference of Presidents will have to set the date for their discussion at the plenary session, probably in March.
Oral questions to the Commission: https://aeur.eu/f/fky ; and to the EU Council: https://aeur.eu/f/fkz (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)