Malta joins EU divorce initiative

Malta has officially joined 12 other member states in an EU-wide cooperation mechanism on divorce and separation laws.

"We have decided to join this initiative because the government feels that its interests will be better represented within the mechanism than outside," a government official said yesterday.

The new mechanism would provide courts in the participating countries with criteria to determine which national law should apply in international divorce or separation cases. It would affect couples of different nationalities, those living apart in different countries or those living together somewhere other than in their home country.

Back in 2005, when the European Commission originally launched the initiative to streamline the interpretation of divorce and separation rules across the EU, Malta was among the member states objecting to the proposal.

The original proposal meant that Maltese courts could be asked to rule on divorce cases of foreign couples. But since then this has changed and Malta would only need to process separation cases, seeing that there is no divorce legislation in Malta.

Malta had also criticised the initiative, arguing it did not approve the use of the new untested tool (enhanced cooperation) in family law matters. However, the island has now changed its position and decided to join the restricted group of member states, which, so far, amount to 13 out of the 27 member states.

"Malta's new reasoning is not that it will be allowing divorce," a Commission official explained yesterday, "but a realisation that if it remained outside the mechanism the island could not defend its anti-divorce stance in the negotiations on the new directive," he said. For instance, Malta's exclusion from the exercise in relation to divorce came about during negotiations.

"If Malta is not in the mechanism what has already been negotiated could be withdrawn and Malta won't be in a position to defend its position from outside. This is the main reason for the sudden change of heart," the official explained.

Malta is the only EU member state that still does not allow divorce and the EU has no competence over the issue.

During a two-day meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg tomorrow, ministers are expected to authorise enhanced cooperation on this directive. This will be the first time in the EU's history where such mechanism will be activated, allowing only some states within the Union to cooperate on a specific field.

So far Malta, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Latvia have confirmed their intention to join the initiative.