(Brussels) – Improving the EU rules that protect children in international controversies on parental responsibility for custody, visiting rights and parental child abduction. This is the intention of the new rules that have been put forward by the European Commission today to speed up legal and civil lawsuits and “make sure the child’s higher interest is always taken into account”. The EU Commission explains: “When there are controversies in a family or when international couples separate, international legal cooperation is essential to provide children with a safe legal framework so they can keep in touch with both parents (and guardians) who might live in different European countries”. Frans Timmermans, first deputy president of the EU Commission, states: “For children, seeing their parents fighting all the time is one of the most shocking things ever. When such fights escalate into an international lawsuit, then the EU is responsible for making sure it is settled in the most harmonious and efficient way ever”.
“The new streamlined rules that we have adopted will benefit both parents and children by speeding up settlements and sparing the high cost that such proceedings often involve. We must make sure that different legal systems are compatible to minimise complications, delays, grief and uncertainties”. This is an awkward, complex and controversial issue; the EU Commission is mainly pursuing “more efficient proceedings for international parental child abduction; making sure children are listened to, so they can express their opinions in all the proceedings that concern their cases; quick implementation of decisions in other member states; better cooperation between the authorities of the member states. The proposal adopted by the EU Commission will be submitted to the EU Cabinet, then the European Parliament will deliver its advisory opinion.