EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, the
European Commission’s Vice-President, said after the vote in the
European Parliament's plenary in Strasbourg:
"The death of a family member is a sad and traumatic event, without additional legal headaches. I
therefore welcome today's vote of the European Parliament plenary,
which constitutes a major step towards providing legal certainty for
thousands of families confronted with international successions. I would
like to congratulate in particular rapporteur Kurt Lechner, who worked
tirelessly to successfully steer this legislation through the European
Parliament. In the interests of the more than 12 million EU citizens
potentially affected by the new EU law on international successions, I
hope a final agreement between the Parliament and the Council can now be
reached as soon as possible. I know that the Danish Presidency is
working on a final agreement, and I strongly support their efforts."
Following today's vote in the European
Parliament plenary, the new EU legislation (a Regulation) now requires
the approval of the Council of the 27 Justice Ministers.
Legislation on cross-border successions
The rules applicable to international
successions are highly complex and difficult to predict. Legislation
governing jurisdiction and the law applicable vary considerably from one
Member State to another. This leads to great legal uncertainty and
distress for people who want to plan their succession and their heirs,
or who may become embroiled in legal and administrative difficulties on
inheriting property in another Member State. For example, if a German
citizen with a house in southern France dies, would French or German
succession law apply to his property? The new EU Regulation will bring
legal certainty to this issue.
There are around 4.5 million successions a
year in the EU, of which about 10% have an international dimension.
These successions are valued at about €123 billion a year.
On 14 October 2009, the Commission proposed an EU Regulation to simplify the settlement of international successions (see IP/09/1508). Under the new EU Regulation, there would be a
single criterion for determining both the jurisdiction of the
authorities and the law applicable to a cross-border succession: the
deceased's habitual place of residence. People living abroad will,
however, be able to opt to have the law of their country of nationality
apply to the entirety of their succession.
Today’s vote is an important step towards
the introduction of a European Certificate of Succession, which will
allow people to prove that they are heirs or administrators of a
succession without further formalities throughout the EU. This will
represent a considerable improvement from the current situation in which
people sometimes have great difficulty exercising their rights. The
result will be faster, cheaper procedures.
To help citizens become better informed about these laws, the Council of Notaries of the EU has created a website (www.successions-europe.eu), with the support of the European Commission, in 22 EU languages plus Croatian.
The proposal for an EU Regulation that facilitates international successions is
a concrete example of how the EU works towards creating an area of
justice that will ease citizens' daily lives, as set out by
Vice-President Reding on 20 April 2010 in an Action Plan for 2010-2014 as well as in the EU Citizenship Report 2010 (see IP/10/1390).
