Union set to force dads to put hands in pockets

By Peter Chapman

Date: 18/03/04

ANTONIO Vitorino, the commissioner for justice and home affairs, is drawing-up a legal blueprint aimed at ensuring estranged husbands cannot avoid maintenance payments for their children by fleeing to other member states.

EU law already provides for the recognition of rulings on the award of maintenance payments, designed to help the children's remaining guardian to pay for their upkeep.

However, officials say the law is often found wanting when it comes to enforcing these rulings - and making sure wayward fathers, or mothers, continue to pay up.

"We receive a lot of complaint letters about this," said one senior Vitorino aide. "We are promoting an idea to improve the situation.

"The problem is not so much about the recognition of judgements but the concrete practicalities.

"If the person stops paying then you need real cooperation [between national authorities]."

The proposals under consideration would ensure a father in Germany or the UK could not shirk his responsibilities by going to live in, say, Greece or Spain.

Vitorino also wants to tackle situations in which estranged spouses flee to another member state and refuse to pay their former partners a fair share of pension payments.

Under the current regime, the victims are usually women. Stay-at-home-wives who have not built up their own pension nest eggs, or have small state provisions, are reliant on their share of their husband's funds.

But if their spouses fail to pay up, they can be plunged into poverty.

"The enforcement of the payments is needed for many months. It may only be a small amount but if you need a pension, it means you don't have a lot of money," said the official.

The official added the exact form of the proposals would not be decided until Vitorino's team has issued a discussion paper. He said work on the issue will need to tally with ongoing efforts to develop an international agreement through the so-called Hague conference on private international law, based in the Dutch capital.

Antonio Vitorino, European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, is drawing up proposals that would prevent divorced or separated fathers avoiding maintenance payments for their children and a fair share of pension payments to estranged wives by fleeing to other Member States.