EU divorce move hits Irish residents

TENS of thousands of married couples living in Ireland, but who are from another EU country, will be barred from availing of a new proposal by Brussels to use their home country’s laws if they divorce.

Under plans put forward by 10 EU members yesterday, “international” couples are allowed to use foreign divorce laws if their marriage comes to an end.

The plan – drawn up by Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovenia and Spain – is allowed among a group of member states under EU co-operative rules provided nine or more countries support the proposal. Supporters of the move have insisted using home country divorce laws will help to ensure children and “the weaker partner” are not disadvantaged during divorce proceedings for any of the estimated 16 million “international” marriages in the EU, 300,000 of which occur every year.

However, despite the value of the proposal, all other members of the EU outside the bloc of 10 have declined to sign up to the agreement in full due to the complexity of the legal issues involved.

This includes a group of seven – Ireland, Denmark, Latvia, Cyprus, Finland, Sweden and Britain – who will refuse to apply any law which is not on the domestic statute book.

According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), more than 20,000 marriages are recorded in Ireland every year.

The EU estimates that up to 13% of marriages in member states involve either a couple which has migrated from the same country, partners who are from different countries, or couples who live in different jurisdictions.

Confirming the plans will now be in place among the group of 10, but will exclude countries such as Ireland, Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, said the new divorce proceedings were essential to ensuring couples were not at a disadvantage if their marriages ended.

In some cases, she said, it would prevent a form of divorce tourism, where one partner in a marriage resides in another country for a period of time in order to ensure the applicable divorce laws are weighted more in his or her favour.

“Thousands of couples find themselves in difficult personal situations because national legal systems have so far failed to provide clear answers,” she said.

While the legal changes do not relate to the division of property for “international” couples who divorce, a further EU proposal is due later this year to clarify this matter.