EUPillar ITF20141228 Tribunal of Vercelli, order (BIIa)

Summary

Pursuant to Art. 8 of Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003, Italian courts have jurisdiction to hear the claim concerning parental responsibility over the two children of a couple in the proceedings for the legal separation of their parents, as the children are habitually resident in Italy. However, pursuant to Art. 15(1)(b) of the abovementioned regulation, it is appropriate to request Rumanian courts to assume jurisdiction in parental responsibility matters concerning the couple’s children, having considered that i) they have with Romania that particular connection listed by Art. 15(3)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 – i.e. Romania has become their habitual residence after Italian courts were seized due to the fact that they have been living there for at least one year, attending school and becoming familiar with the mother-claimant’s family there – and ii) it is in their best interest that Rumanian courts hear and determine the case as, being the courts of the State of their new residence, they are better placed to gather (mostly with the assistance of the social services) all the elements necessary on the one hand to assess the children’s needs and monitor the evolution of their personality and their relationship with their parents and the relatives they live with and on the other hand to (promptly) modify the decision, if needed. Since the transfer of the case at stake is requested of the court’s own motion, it must be accepted, under Art. 15(2) of Regulation (EC) No 2201/2203, by the only party who appeared in the proceedings, i.e. the mother-claimant. To this end, preliminary activities shall be permitted again in the proceedings pending before the Italian court and the claimant summoned to appear at immediate new hearings. If the party will not consent to the translatio iudicii, new elements necessary to decide the case in the best interest of the children shall anyway be obtained in the pending proceedings, also in the light of Regulation (EC) No 1206/2001 of 28 May 2001 on cooperation between the courts of the member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters.