The EU Regulation on Public Documents
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The EU Regulation on Public Documents A first step towards the abolition of the Apostille in the EU Stefan Schlauß1
© Europäische Rechtsakademie (ERA) 2020
Abstract The EU Regulation on Public Documents, which has been applicable in the EU Member States since 16 February 2019, seems as yet to be relatively unknown in practice. This is despite the fact that the new rules provided for by the Regulation are designed to facilitate the cross-border circulation of public documents, and in so doing also make the free movement of people within European Union borders considerably easier. As a result, an Apostille is no longer necessary for certain public documents, especially those relating to the area of civil status, as the Regulation means such documents must be recognised as genuine in other Member States without the need for an Apostille. A further benefit is that the need for a translation falls by the wayside too in most cases. Certain public documents may have multilingual forms attached to them to provide a translation guide. As a result, such public documents can be presented directly to the authorities of other EU Member States. This heralds the first steps towards the abolition of the Apostille within EU borders. Keywords Public Documents · Abolition of legalisation/the Apostille · International co-operation in Civil Law matters · EU law
1 Introduction Since 16 February 2019, “Regulation EU 2016/1191 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 on promoting the free movement of citizens by The author is head of the Department for International Civil Law matters at the German Federal Office of Justice in Bonn.
B S. Schlauß
[email protected]; url: http://www.bundesjustizamt.de
1
Department for International Civil Law matters at the German Federal Office of Justice, Bonn, Germany
S. Schlauß
simplifying the requirements for presenting certain public documents in the European Union and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012” (EU Regulation on Public Documents) has been directly applicable in the Member States of the European Union.1 The Regulation means that certain public documents no longer require legalisation or similar formalities, especially as relates to the Apostille (Arts. 1 and 4 of the Regulation). Such public documents must be recognised as genuine by the authorities of other EU Member States without the need for an Apostille. At the same time, the Regulation provides for the introduction of multilingual standard forms as a translation aid (Article 7 of the Regulation). Each of the Member States designates a Central Authority so as to facilitate cross-border administrative co-operation (Article 15 of the Regulation). The aim of this is to act as another step towards consolidating freedom of movement within the European Union. As is inherent to the nature of moving from one country to another, it is not uncommon for citizens going to live in a different EU Member State to have to present certain public documents to the local authorities, which may include birth certificat
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