EP stemt in met nieuwe autoriteit voor voogdij over kinderen van ex-partners van buiten EU (en) - Hoofdinhoud

Recovering child maintenance from an ex-partner living abroad will become easier following an EP i vote. On 17 April MEPs approved the final amendments to the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child support, which allows it to enter into force in the EU. This international convention covers many practical matters, such as language requirements, standardised forms and the exchange of information on national laws. We discussed it with Antonio López-Istúriz White i, the MEP in charge.

The Hague Convention was negotiated by the EU and a number of other countries including the US to make it easier to recover maintenance from someone living in another country. Mr López-Istúriz White, a Spanish member of the EPP group, was in charge of steering the latest amendments through Parliament.

The EP vote allows the Hague Convention to enter into force. What will it change exactly for EU citizens? How many people are concerned?

In the EU 13% of couples include someone from a country outside the EU. Thousands of European citizens that do not have the right to child maintenance can now ask for that. This new law also creates a central European authority, which will gather all the claims from all the citizens around the European Union and ask governments of third countries about those particular claims.

I call on Denmark specifically and the United Kingdom to join the Convention as soon as possible so we can have an agreement for the whole of Europe.

What are the next steps for the EP in easing the life of international couples in the EU?

Someone married in Spain with a partner from United Kingdom, Denmark or Sweden, should have the same rights in Spain, in Denmark, in the United Kingdom! We are working to enhance cooperation between member states, as they have different laws and different approaches to divorces. For example, we now have the question of the homosexual marriage, which is handled differently in the countries of the European Union and we have to work to have a common stand in the future.