Malta has taken the extraordinary step of inserting a formal declaration to the conclusions of the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting after its objections on cross-border inheritance rules were ignored.
The objective of the new EU regulation is to establish a single criterion to determine the law that would apply to a cross-border succession, namely the dead person’s habitual residence.
This means the Maltese courts will have to apply the law of the place where the dead person lived at the time of death, even if these include property and real estate in Malta.
The island has vehemently opposed the European Commission’s original proposal, aimed at easing the legal burdens of cross-border successions, but its concerns were ignored as the Council, through a qualified majority, approved the rules that will have to be applied by Maltese courts.
In its formal statement, Malta said yesterday that “it regrets that the regulation does not take into consideration Malta’s concerns”.
It added: “This will have far-reaching effects on the fundamental elements of Malta’s legal regime regulating succession, in particular the rules concerning the applicable law and the adoption of a single rule to regulate the whole estate of the deceased without any distinction between movable and immovable property.”
The rules also envisage the creation of a European Certificate of Succession that would be applicable throughout the EU.
This would enable heirs to prove their status and others to establish their power as administrator or executor of an inheritance without further formalities.
Malta had long argued against the proposed regulation as it felt it was not in its interest and went against its long-established practice.
Currently, in the case of movable property, the law of the place where the dead person lived at the time of death is applied. In the case of immovable property, the law of the place where the property is located is adopted.
The rules, which will come into force in three years’ time, introduce the adoption of a single rule – the law of the dead person’s habitual residence – to regulate the whole estate of the deceased without any distinction between movable and immovable property.
“Throughout the negotiations, Malta has consistently made it very clear that the imposition of this single rule… will have a significant effect on its current succession system,” a government spokesman said.
Despite these concerns, the Council yesterday adopted the regulations which have already received the MEPs’ green light.