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MOVES to make life easier for divorcing couples have been proposed by the European Commission.
Increased mobility for workers around the European Union means more marriages between nationalities.
To end confusion, the commission is planning to give individuals a say in which country's legal jurisdiction they choose to preside over the end of their relationship.
"This will simplify life for couples in the EU," said Franco Frattini, the justice commissioner. "It will increase legal certainty and enable couples to know which law will apply to their matrimonial property regime and their divorce.
"The aim is not to harmonise the national laws on divorce, which are very diverse, but to ensure legal certainty, flexibility and access to court."
If approved by EU governments, the move would give couples limited rights to choose the applicable law and court to handle their divorce - particularly useful for divorces by mutual consent.
If the couple do not make a choice, the proposals allows for the divorce to be governed "by a law with which the spouses have a close connection, to guarantee legal certainty".
The plan follows a public consultation process, which revealed that an estimated 170,000 "international" divorce proceedings take place every year - about 16 per cent of all divorces.
The commission also unveiled a new public consultation process yesterday as a prelude to separate proposals designed to clarify legal jurisdiction covering matrimonial property rights.
The new consultation will deal with the property arrangements between unmarried as well as married couples, "to take account of social reality in the EU, where an increasing number of couples live together without being married", according to a commission statement.
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