Published: 25.05.2021
The European Commission intends to implement a regulation demanding from Member States to acknowledge foreign adoptions of children by single-sex partnerships. However, the EU is not competent to interfere in family law. For this reason, an international coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) appealed to the European Commission to withdraw from these plans. You can sign an on-line petition to this end.
“The President of the European Commission believes that parenthood acknowledged in one country must also be acknowledged in others, even in the case of single-sex couples. The regulation will interfere in the family law of Member States, which is unacceptable in light of EU Treaties. The Treaties emphasise that such matters as marriage and parenthood are the sole competence of Member States”, points out Att. Katarzyna Gęsiak, Deputy Director of the Ordo Iuris Centre of the International Law.
The adoption of such changes in the form of a regulation would require all EU countries to implement them, including the ones whose legislation provides otherwise. This is to be achieved by introducing common compatibility rules for conflicting provisions of national family law, and by obliging Member States to recognise judgements in parenting cases issued by courts from other states. In this way, the EU would (completely outside its competence) interfere in the substantive family law of individual states.
The proposed regulation also involves the so-called optional European certificate of parenthood. It would be an alternative formal certificate of birth. As intended by the Commission, it would most probably apply in countries such as Poland, which do not accept the EU attempts at interfering in internal law.
A group of a dozen European countries have voiced their protest against the European Commission plans. A petition to this end was presented at a conference held by the Ordo Iuris Institute. The initiative is supported by pro-family communities, e.g. from France, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine.
09.02.2024
- The first reading of the civic bill "Yes to family, no to gender" is underway in the Sejm.
- This bill concerns consent to the denunciation of the Istanbul Convention and the creation of a Team for the development of the principles of the International Convention on the Rights of the Family
01.02.2024
- In December 2023, the European Parliament voted in favour of the European Commission's proposal to regulate the mutual recognition of parenthood in EU Member States.
- As a result of the adoption of this draft legislation, Poland would be obliged to recognise the legal validity of a document certifying same-sex parenthood.
30.01.2024
- The Senate of the Czech Republic has rejected a draft resolution to consent to the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, which questions the existence of two genders by introducing the concept of "socio-cultural gender" into the legal order - gender.
- The Czech portal 'Seznam Zprávy' revealed that, before the final decision was made, the senators read an analysis by the Ordo Iuris Institute, which in 2020 was translated into 17 languages, including the Czech language.
17.01.2024
- A UN independent expert is preparing a report on the relationship between protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and the human rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.
- The report is to be presented at the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
- The Ordo Iuris Institute presented its opinion on the report.
© 2016 ORDO IURIS - Instytut Na Rzecz Kultury Prawnej
