Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-12-Speech-1-135-000"
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"en.20120312.19.1-135-000"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, for European citizens who have assets in another country or who live in a country other than their home country, it is currently practically impossible to plan their succession properly and with legal certainty. The heirs, for their part, face disputes that are to some extent irresolvable but always cost time and money.
Twelve million EU citizens live in another Member State. Many have assets in another country. Thirteen per cent of marriages are mixed-nationality, and around 20 million citizens of third states reside in the European Union. They are all affected. The need for uniform European regulation in this area is obvious. In future, citizens will be able to choose, and to decide that the inheritance law of their home state should apply to their succession. For the majority of Member States, this right to choose is something entirely new. Where a citizen fails to make a choice of legal system, the inheritance law of the country in which they were habitually resident at the time of their death, where they had the main focus of their life, will apply to their succession.
The inheritance law and of course also law on indefeasible interests that will subsequently apply in each individual case will then apply to the whole succession. This includes land and property, wherever it is located. Successions will thus no longer be fragmented. In most cases, courts will be able to apply their own law and, in contrast to the
in future, court decisions will be mutually recognised.
For the heirs, who hitherto had to do battle with authorities and courts in multiple states, it is particularly important that there is to be a European Certificate of Succession, which must be recognised as proof of inheritance in all Member States and can be used in all Member States for entries in land and property registers, but also for disposal over succession assets, for example over bank accounts. This will make things enormously simpler and easier for citizens. It will provide real benefits, and save time and money.
I would also briefly like to bring up a few individual points. First of all, the regulation does not apply to inheritance tax, which remains unchanged. That is always the first or second question that citizens ask, and it is something that would, in fact, merit an initiative of its own.
Secondly, the relevant national law concerning inheritance and indefeasible interests also remains unaltered. Thirdly, the new rules will only start to apply three years after the entry into force of the regulation. Fourthly, the United Kingdom and Ireland have made use of their opt-out. We hope that they will join in later. The same applies to Denmark.
In contrast to other regulations covering this field, such as Rome I and II, we are not dealing here with a codification and finishing-off of existing agreements – rather, this is a fundamentally new creation for all Member States. For that reason, the outstanding quality of the Commission proposal deserves specific recognition and respect. Nonetheless, considerable improvements were still achieved in the course of the two-and-a-half years of discussions, which is down to the intensive collaboration of all the institutions. I would like to thank the members of the Committee on Legal Affairs for the important contributions they had to make and for their support, which led to a number of significant improvements and additions.
I would specifically like to thank the Council, too, which worked intensively in all its configurations on this dossier and helped provide clarifications and improvements. I would particularly like to thank the Danish Presidency, which brought the discussions to their conclusion and effectively sealed the deal. Finally, I would like to thank the Commission again, as it not only brought forward a sound proposal, but was also excellent in the way it assisted and influenced the discussions in both technical and content-related terms.
Given that we were just debating gender policy, Commissioner, I feel I should just point out that the consultation and assistance from the Commission came exclusively from women, as far as I could see. Please do pass on my thanks to the relevant people. This regulation is relatively simple and comprehensible for the citizens. There were, however, difficult issues to be tackled and resolved in the negotiations. Everybody showed the willingness to find a common solution for the benefit of the citizens. As a result, everyone made concessions for the common good. For this, too, I would like to offer my sincere thanks."@en1
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