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Children in EU to benefit from speedier maintenance payments from abroad
The pain of a divorce or separation is all too often made worse by financial and emotional pressure when one parent lives abroad and refuses to provide financial help. With an estimated 16 million international couples in the EU and 30 million EU citizens living in non-EU countries, the issue of retrieving child maintenance from abroad will grow. For example, a couple living in France get divorced and the father moves to the United States. But will the child still receive the maintenance payments a French court ordered him to pay? Under a new Convention signed by the EU today, the American authorities would cooperate with those in Europe to make sure the father fulfils his obligations and the child still gets support. The Hague Maintenance Convention sets up a worldwide system for recovering child support and other family maintenance payments. It creates a common legal framework between the EU and non-EU countries, so that authorities cooperate in enforcing maintenance claims and debtors can no longer escape by leaving the EU. It also provides for free legal assistance in international child support cases. The Convention complements the EU's own rules on recognising and enforcing maintenance decisions, which will apply from 18 June 2011.
Children in EU to benefit from speedier maintenance payments from abroad
The pain of a divorce or separation is all too often made worse by financial and emotional pressure when one parent lives abroad and refuses to provide financial help. With an estimated 16 million international couples in the EU and 30 million EU citizens living in non-EU countries, the issue of retrieving child maintenance from abroad will grow. For example, a couple living in France get divorced and the father moves to the United States. But will the child still receive the maintenance payments a French court ordered him to pay? Under a new Convention signed by the EU today, the American authorities would cooperate with those in Europe to make sure the father fulfils his obligations and the child still gets support. The Hague Maintenance Convention sets up a worldwide system for recovering child support and other family maintenance payments. It creates a common legal framework between the EU and non-EU countries, so that authorities cooperate in enforcing maintenance claims and debtors can no longer escape by leaving the EU. It also provides for free legal assistance in international child support cases. The Convention complements the EU's own rules on recognising and enforcing maintenance decisions, which will apply from 18 June 2011.
