Proposal for a Council Decision on the declaration of acceptance by the Member States, in the interest of the European Union, of the accession of Russian Federation to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction

The aim of the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, to date ratified by 86 countries including all EU Member States, is to restore the status quo by means of the prompt return of wrongfully removed or retained children through a system of cooperation among central authorities appointed by its Contracting Parties.

As the prevention of child abduction is an essential part of the EU policy to promote the rights of the child, the European Union is active at international level to improve the application of the 1980 Convention and encourages third States to accede to it. In particular, the Commission has always stressed the need for the Russian Federation to accede to the 1980 Hague Convention in order to rely on a common EU-Russia legal framework to deal with cases of child abduction.

The issue was discussed for several years at different levels, namely in the context of the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council on Justice, Freedom and Security, and finally Russia decided to deposit the accession instrument to the 1980 Convention on 28 July 2011. The Convention entered into force in Russia on 1 October 2011.

Article 38(4) of the 1980 Convention stipulates that the Convention applies between the acceding country and such Contracting States as will have declared their acceptance of the accession. Therefore, the European Union has to decide whether to accept the accession of Russia, and when affirmative, the Member States should make the declaration of acceptance concerning Russia's accession in the interest of the European Union.

As the matter of international child abduction falls into the exclusive external competence of the European Union, the decision whether the Member States should accept Russia's accession to the 1980 Convention has to be taken by means of a Council Decision.

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)911: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:911:FIN

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