EU-wide deal to ease pain of divorce

Date: 21/05/1998

By Simon Coss

COUPLES from one EU country who divorce in another should face fewer legal obstacles under a deal set to be agreed by justice ministers next week.

At present, those who divorce in a member state other than their own can find that the court ruling which dissolved their marriage is not recognised when they return home.

Under the 'Brussels II' convention expected to be approved at a ministerial meeting next Thursday (28 May), governments would agree to accept the rulings of each other's courts, thus avoiding such anomalies. However, the convention contains a number of caveats to stop people trying to obtain 'quickie' divorces in EU countries with the loosest rules.

These provisos were included at the insistence of member states with more conservative divorce legislation.

The draft convention stipulates that the country where the couple was living when the marriage broke up would be responsible for handling the divorce proceedings. If the two people concerned were living in different countries when they decided to end their marriage, they could apply for a divorce in either member state. To prevent them launching two identical sets of proceedings, the convention states that the first court approached should have priority.

Even after the convention has been approved, however, the new rules are unlikely to come into effect for several years as they must first be ratified by the EU's 15 national parliaments.

At next week's meeting, justice ministers are also likely to initial a deal to ensure motorists punished for driving offences abroad will not face additional sanctions when they return home.

However, ministers will not be able to endorse the agreement formally as a dispute between the UK and Spain over the Gibraltar authorities' status in interpreting court rulings has only just been resolved, delaying legal fine-tuning of the text.