JUSTICE : MINISTERS APPROVE NEW RULES ON CROSS-BORDER DIVORCE.

Following fours years of debate, the EU's justice ministers have finally managed to find a solution to facilitate divorce between married couples of different nationalities. On 3 December 2010 in Brussels, 14 member states(1) agreed to initiate the first enhanced cooperation' on the issue in the EU's history.

In summary, the Council said that international couples, for example a Hungarian couple living in Rome or a Franco-German couple residing in Madrid, will soon have the possibility of following clear rules. Previously dependent on the laws of the couple's country of residence, bi-national couples (European or international) will now be able to select the law applicable to their divorce - the laws of the state in which the couple has its main residence; the laws of the state in which the couple previously resided, providing that one member of the couple still lives there; the laws of the husband's national state or lex fori (the laws of the jurisdiction where the action is brought)

If the parties are not able to agree, the new ruling envisages a sliding system' based on the laws of the state of main residence in the first instance, then the laws of the country of previous residence (so long as the couple had not left the country in question more than one year before the start of judicial proceedings, and that one of both still lives there), then the laws of the country of origin of one of the couple and finally, the lex fori.

According to Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, "The agreement also represents an important turning point in EU cooperation on difficult legal issues, which demonstrates that we are able to find pragmatic...