Press Release: Children and families to benefit from new EU rules on maintenance payments

Under new EU-wide rules which apply as of this week, children across the EU will benefit from speedier maintenance payments when families split up. With an estimated 16 million international couples in the EU and 1 million divorces every year, more and more families need to recover maintenance fees when one parent lives abroad and refuses to provide financial help. The new rules set up an EU-wide system for facilitating the recovery of maintenance payments, so that absent parents will no longer be able to evade their obligations.