The text should be adopted unanimously, a challenge while several member states – Hungary and Poland in mind – are extremely reluctant to recognize LGBT+rights.
MO12345LEMOND With AFP
The European Commission proposed, Wednesday, December 7, that each EU country is obliged to recognize the parentage rights already granted in another Member State, which would strengthen the protection of children of homoparental families.
The proposal of the European executive, which will be examined by MEPs and member states, aims in particular to create “a European harmonized parentage certificate, of which all twenty-seven would be required to accept validity . Children or their parents “could request this certificate from the Member State which established the parentage and use it to prove their relationship in all the other member states”. “The parentage established in a Member State should be recognized in all the others without special procedure”, writes the Commission in a Communicated .
“The proposal is focused on the best interests and the rights of the child. It will bring legal clarity to all types of families who are in a cross -border situation within the EU, whether because whether they move from one Member State to another to travel or reside there or because they have family members or property in another Member State. “
parent in a country, parent in all others
“Currently, national laws vary according to member states”, particularly with regard to the rights of homoparental families, “which can create legal obstacles sometimes obliging families to initiate administrative, even judicial procedures, to obtain Recognition of parentage, long and costly procedures at the uncertain outcome “, deplores the European executive.
Beyond free movement, the text would allow children, wherever they are in the EU, “to benefit from the rights which arise from parentage in fields such as successions, food obligations, The right of custody or the right of parents to act as legal representatives for school or medical issues “, an objective set by the president of the European Commission in September 2020:” If you are a parent in a country, you are a parent in All countries, “said Ursula von der Leyen before MEPs.
The adoption of the text will require the unanimity of the member states, a challenge while several of them – Hungary and Poland in mind – are extremely reluctant to recognize LGBT+rights. “We do not want to change national competence. It is not a question of changing the way of defining what constitutes a family” or “the definition of adoption”, but “to protect the rights of the child”, pleaded the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders. If unanimity cannot be obtained, Brussels will seek to “strengthen cooperation” between states, he added.