Mixed-nation couples to get choice of divorce laws

COUPLES from different EU countries will be able to choose which divorce laws apply to them under an agreement struck by justice ministers.

The agreement will apply to just 14 EU member states with the majority, including Ireland, opting out.

However, despite this, judges in the countries taking part will apply Irish divorce law to couples where at least one of them is Irish, if they so wish.

The decision is the first under the new enhanced co-operation rules of the Lisbon Treaty that allows a number of countries to form a core group for specific purposes such as harmonising and recognising one another’s divorce laws.

Of the 2.2 million marriages a year in the EU, about 350,000 of them are between people from different member states. There are around 875,000 divorces a year with about 170,000 or 16% between international couples.

There are many cases of one spouse seeking a divorce in the country whose laws are most beneficial to him or her, and leaving the other spouse at a disadvantage.

Under the agreement between the 14 countries this should not happen, as both must agree in writing which country’s divorce laws will apply to them. They will have a choice of the country where they are living or the country of which either spouse is a native. The countries taking part are France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria and Malta.

So an Irish person married to a German and living in France can choose the laws applicable to any of the three countries, and have that applied by the court in France for instance.

However, couples living in Ireland will not be able to avail of this. Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, who attended yesterday’s meeting, said: “We do not want foreign divorce laws in our own courts.”

A number of other countries, including Finland and Sweden, did not sign up either because they said there were cultural and family value implications. The matter now has to be agreed by the European Parliament.

Sweden feared, for instance, that it could be forced to recognise sharia law. Equally they did not want to have to apply Ireland’s insistence on a four-year separation before granting a divorce. Countries can choose to opt into the arrangement at any time.

Ireland did opt into new rules strengthening the fight against human trafficking, sexual exploitation of children and pornography that will remove obstacles to cross border prosecutions and to improved interpretation and translation in criminal procedures.

However, there was a major row over an attempt by the Spanish currently holding the EU presidency to introduce a European Protection Order. It aims to ensure protection orders for the victims of crime are recognised in all member states. But Ireland and a big number of countries say it would have to have a civil law basis to be legally enforceable, but Spain insisted otherwise and it will now go to the European Parliament.