European Couples May Get Easier Divorce Rules Under New EU Law
- Proposed legislation aims to streamline rules across the EU
- Children get a voice in divorce and parent abduction disputes
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The EU and the U.K. may still be rowing over their split, but bitter divorce battles over who gets the kids and the coffee table should reach faster resolution for European couples under new divorce and child abduction rules agreed among member states on Friday.
Some 140,000 couples seeking to split from a partner with a different EU nationality every year, triggering a wave of potential legal disputes over which law applies, since they could claim to divorce where they live or where they’re from. The new rules speed up some of the legal proceedings and set standard terms for how a divorce can be rejected, the European Commission said in a statement published on its website.