Anerkennung der Elternschaft innerhalb der EU
EVS ADHESION STATEMENT FOR THE COMMISSION ‘S INITIATIVE CONCERNING “Cross-border family situations – recognition of parenthood”
The EVS e.V. (European association of civil registrars – Europäischer Verband der Standesbeamtinnen und Standesbeamten, www.evs-eu.org) was founded in 2000 and is a network organization which focuses exclusively on the exchange of information and best practices related to the fields of civil registration, family law, identity management and civil justice, between legal, judicial and administrative authorities.
Present members are the associations of civil registrars from Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Netherlands, although the EVS congresses actract registrars from many other member states as well.
The EVS encourages further European integration in order to improve the administrative life of European citizens. EVS has made several declarations and policy proposals on:
– marriage law (Declaration of Graz)
– the exchange of civil status records (Declaration of Noordwijkerhout)
– name law (Declaration of Engelberg)
– parental law (Declaration of Gent)
– cross-border civil status events (Declaration of Leuven).
These declarations are all published on our website https://evs-eu.org/erklarungen/. They were a product of the congresses and time in which they were elaborated. Some of the proposals are already realised, others are still to be put into practice and some need to be actualized and broadened.
It is a fact, however, that the European dimension was and is the constant factor in the EVS declarations and activities. The EVS acknowledges that our citizens are in need and cannot make sufficient use of their right of free movement:
– judicial and administrative facts and decisions on civil status made in one member state are still not always acknowledged or are treated differently by another member state
– there is no direct exchange of information on the civil status of our citizens between countries which results in a greater risk of identity fraud and citizens themselves have to carry their paperwork around.
The EVS welcomed the Public Documents Regulation since it cut red tape, lowered administrative burdens and fostered free mobility. Further steps are needed though:
– an expanded exchange of civil status information between the competent authorities of EU member states regardless of citizenship, residence status or nationality of the people concerned
– and the creation of a European code of Private International Law, common conflict rules, which would solve any cross-border complexities and would certainly be an incentive for more harmonization between material law as well.
The EVS adheres therefore to the initiative of the European Commission concerning the recognition of parenthood, where we worked already on in 2007 (the declaration of Gent, mentioned before). Current family law and private international law within the member states is both incomplete and insufficient in cross-border relations concerning civil status events in general and parenthood in particular. Soft measures will not be sufficient.
The European institutions have therefore the key to solve cross-border civil status conflicts by taking legislative measures for the reasons explained in the “Inception Impact Assessment”. Common conflict rules on a European and not a national government level are needed indeed. The EVS has the expertise in this field and if needed we are standing by to give further advice and insights in the elaboration of solutions for our citizens.