As thousands of dewy-eyed lovers take up the offer of married bliss on Valentine's Day, EU ministers are quarrelling over divorce reforms.
Roman Catholic countries are fuming at a proposal that would force them to apply liberal foreign laws in their courts, while other nations like Sweden worry the bill would compromise their own tolerant rules.
Brussels wants to make it easier for couples of different nationalities who live abroad to divorce, as they currently can face huge legal bills and years of delays. There are no simple divorce rules for international couples, who account for over 15 per cent of all EU marriages and divorces.
Spain's fast-track rules mean you can divorce after three months, whereas divorce is illegal in Malta, meaning that the terms of alimony and child custody can vary widely within the EU.
"What we have now is almost 27 different sets of legal rules on divorce. And every couple is faced with this question: which divorce law is applicable?,"
explains European Commission spokesman, Friso Roscam-Abbing.
Legal jungle
Brussels-based divorce lawyer, Arnaud Gillard, was confronted with a legal headache when his client, an Austrian diplomat, wanted to split up from her French husband: "We had a huge argument on which law should apply to the divorce and the custody of their child: should it be French, Belgian or Austrian law? It took us two years to get just to know which legislation was applicable."
Brussels insists that couples should be free to decide on which law to pick, based either on their nationalities or their country of residence. This would mean, for instance, that a Greek-Dutch couple living in Ireland could decide to have a Dutch divorce in an Irish court (under Irish law, couples must be separated for four years before divorcing). But Ireland, along with Poland and Malta, refuses to be forced to carry out a law from a liberal nation like Holland.
Going Greek in Poland?
Similarly, Stockholm has balked at having its own supple rules overruled by restrictive foreign legislation. The procedure would also be a headache for courts, warns Arnaud Gillard:
"The proposal is very complex and dangerous as it could force a court in one country to apply foreign divorce laws, like Greek law in Poland. So a judge would first need to have the laws translated and then get to grips with all their legal complexities and jurisprudence. They would most likely throw in the towel."
No pre-nup, we're European
Part of the proposal is to encourage couples to sign a pre-wedding contract agreeing on where to divorce if they split. Yet this US-style contract is unlikely to go down well with Europeans.
"No, I wouldn't sign a pre-nuptial contract because marriage is something that goes very deep and that should last a lifetime. This shouldn't be covered by any agreements, before or afterwards," says Alen, a German married to a Maltese. His wife Ingrid says: "I certainly wouldn't do it but I suppose could see it would make sense for other couples to solve future problems, especially if children are involved."
Current EU President Slovenia is hoping to push through the divorce reforms by the summer. But there seems no hope of countries agreeing to kiss and make up.
EU Marriages and Divorces
* there are 2.2 million marriages per year in the EU; 350,000 are international (couples of different nationalities or same nationality but living abroad)
* there are around 900,000 divorces per year, of which around 16% are international
* the rate of international divorces is highest in Estonia (50%), lowest in Hungary (1.5%)
Source: By Vanessa Mock For Radio Netherlands
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