Simon Rijsdijk, President EVS Opening words 22nd EVS conference in Fulda, Germany

Very honored ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, dear friends, dear colleague President BDS Volker Weber,

It is a great honor for me to be a guest in the beautiful city of Fulda. Known as an episcopal city and for its Baroque architecture.

The burial of the bishop Boniface killed near Dokkum in the Netherlands in the abbey of Fulda made the city an important place of pilgrimage. The Romanesque Michael’s Church, one of the oldest churches in Germany, also dates from this period. Relics of Boniface are now in the crypt under the cathedral, which is of a later date.

Fulda, a town near Bad Salzschlirf, the location of our sister association Bundesverband der Deutschen Standesbeamtinnen und Standesbeamten, where their academy is also housed.

Dear colleagues, our profession covers a wide range of topics in the field of personal and family law. These topics have to do with changing family ties in our society. I mention adoption, surrogacy, custody issues, naming rights, complex divorces, alimony, multi-parenthood, etc. That is just a selection of the topics involved in personal and family law.

It is good to reflect together these days on the various developments in those areas.

These are topics that affect people and also involve ethical considerations. You can look at it in different ways. Where moral and ethical issues are concerned, this affects politics.

An important theme is not only the recognition of formal relationships of same-sex couples within Europe, but also the recognition of different forms of parenthood within the European Union, especially for ‘rainbow families.’

In her 2020 State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that as part of the LGBTIQ equality strategy, mutual recognition of family relationships in the EU will be pursued. “If you are older in one country, you are older in every country,” the Commission President said.

Yet this catchy statement or one-liner certainly does not reflect the reality surrounding the recognition of parenthood within Europe. The aim is for more uniformity in the recognition of parenthood within the EU.

Legal parentage concerns the family bond between a child and an (adult) person. National legal systems attach importance not only to biological reality, but also to intentional and social parenthood when granting legal parenthood.

The description of the ‘traditional family’ is that it is a family consisting of a man and woman (preferably married) who have biological/genetic children together and raise these children together in a monogamous, sustainable cohabitation. If this family is the poster child for the ‘traditional family’, there are soon many families that are left out; such as single-parent families and newly formed families or (plus-parent) families after divorce or separation by the parents. Non-traditional families also commonly include families with two fathers, two mothers, or trans parents (LGBT parenting), families in which children are born via artificial reproductive techniques such as donorship or surrogacy. In these cases, in principle, more than two parties are involved (for example a donor or surrogate mother and/or egg donor) in the establishment of parenthood.

In addition, each country has its own rules on how legal parenthood arises, and the recognition of legal parenthood created abroad is also regulated in private international law rules that differ per country.

This may affect the free movement of people.

Legal parenthood is therefore important and not only for family law. It is the basis of many rights and obligations, including acquisition of nationality and residence rights. In family law, it has consequences for, among other things, parental authority, child support and inheritance.

According to the European Commission, a more uniform application of the rules on the basis of which parenthood is recognized and established within the EU is desirable. There are already European regulations that contain IPR rules on the consequences of legal parenthood, such as parental authority, maintenance obligations and inheritance law, which are already regulated to a greater or lesser extent by EU law. But not about the origins and recognition of parenthood itself within the EU.

The right to protection of private and family life contained in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights bears an unclear relationship to legal protection of non-traditional families.

Since the landmark Marxck judgment in 1979, which heralded the end of legal discrimination between children born of married and unmarried parents, family law has continued to develop beyond the boundaries of ‘traditional’ (biological) parenthood and marriage. Medical developments in the field of artificial reproductive techniques, changed social views surrounding parenthood and further LGBT emancipation and regulations within Europe have helped shape these developments. Over the years, (the interpretation of) the European Convention on Human Rights has also been subject to changes, and these changes are indicative of the development of dominant views around family and parenthood.

There are still differences between countries on many topics in the field of personal and family law. Not surprising either, because as I indicated earlier, the themes are mainly about moral and ethical issues. How does a society want to organize life? Cultural differences therefore also determine different directions in the laws and regulations of the countries. With respect.

It can also lead to a “short circuit” between the legal systems involved.

Short circuit that then indirectly affects the free movement of people and the operation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

…

European Parliament elections will take place in a few weeks. It is the tenth time that the European Parliament has been directly elected and the first time since the United Kingdom left the union.

In an increasing number of countries within the EU, we observe landslides during the last elections. This is also the case in the Netherlands. It is expected that this will also happen during the European elections and that the European Parliament will change considerably.

It concerns the growth of political parties that are generally more protectionist, believe that each country should determine for itself how it organizes society, are less focused on intercountry cooperation and have conservative values ​​with regard to family life and society and the way people want to organize their lives.

What could this mean for issues in the field of personal and family law? Let us not overestimate it, because at the same time it is not expected that the political movement in question will form a majority in the European Parliament.

Yet…

Against the background of what I have outlined, I am extremely interested in the presentations in the coming days. There is an excellent program with contributions from Latvia, Germany, Estonia, Italy, Slovenia, Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal and Bulgaria. A compliment to the organizers of this EVS conference is therefore appropriate!

I wish you all an educational and inspiring conference and thank you for your attention!