The EU in our daily lives: Simpler processing of cross-border succession cases

More and more people make their homes and own property in EU countries other than the one in which they hold citizenship. This is leading to an increasing number of cross-border succession cases. EU citizens who are involved in such cases now confront a number of problems. It is common for cases concerning the same estate to be ongoing in several Member States, which is both time-consuming and costly. The European Commission has therefore presented a proposal for a regulation on succession that will make it easier for citizens.

The proposal contains provisions on the country in which a cross-border succession case is to be processed and on which country’s law is to be applied. There are also provisions on recognition and enforcement of decisions on succession within the EU. The establishment of a European certificate of succession is also proposed – a document that shows who succeeds a certain person or has the right to deal with the estate and that applies throughout the EU.

Today there is no EU legislation regulating cross-border succession. The Member States follow different rules about which country’s law is to apply and which court has jurisdiction. These differences lead to problems when authorities from more than one country are involved in the same case. It is also common for there to be parallel proceedings in several Member States.

The proposal will now be negotiated between the Member States. The negotiations began during the Swedish Presidency of the EU and will continue in the coming presidencies.