Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2013)228 - Promoting the free movement of citizens and businesses by simplifying the acceptance of certain public documents in the EU - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2013)228 - Promoting the free movement of citizens and businesses by simplifying the acceptance of certain public documents in the EU. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2013)228  |
| date | 24-04-2013 |
The 2009 Stockholm Programme An open and secure Europe serving and protecting citizens''[1] stressed the importance of making Union citizenship effective and put the citizens at the heart of EU policies in the area of justice. Its actions are focused on building a citizens Europe', including through promotion of citizens’ rights, in particular the right to freedom of movement. The related Action Plan confirms this mandate and states that a well-functioning European judicial area "should be put at the service of citizens and businesses so as to support economic activity in the single market (…)". Against this background, the Action Plan foresees the adoption of a legislative proposal for dispensing with the formalities for the legalisation of public documents between the Member States. In this context, in its Resolution on the Stockholm Programme, the European Parliament considered that the priorities in the field of civil justice must first and foremost meet the needs expressed by individual citizens and businesses. Therefore, it "calls for a simple and autonomous European system for (…) the abolition of requirements for legalisation of documents".[3]
In response, the European Commission confirmed its commitment to facilitate the free circulation of public documents within the EU in its 2010 Citizenship Report and presented in December 2010 a concrete vision to the public in the Green Paper on "Less bureaucracy for citizens: promoting free movement of public documents and recognition of the effects of civil status records''.[5] Through that Green Paper, the Commission launched a consultation on the possible means to facilitate the use and acceptance of public documents between the Member States.
At the same time, the creation of the EU Single Market received a new impetus with the adoption of the Single Market Act, which aims at strengthening citizens' confidence in their internal market and maximising its potential as the real growth engine within the Union's economy. This implies, among others, the elimination of disproportionate barriers hampering the full enjoyment of the internal market freedoms by Union citizens and businesses. Fostering mobility of citizens and businesses across borders in the EU is also one of the main cornerstones of the Single Market Act II[7] and a precondition to deliver on its potential. To this end, the Commission is determined to continue working towards its vision of a Single Market where citizens and businesses are free to move cross-border whenever and wherever they want to and without unjustified restrictions caused by diverging national rules.
In the same vein, the Commission's Action Plan on European company law and corporate governance[8] focuses on supporting European businesses, in particular as regards strengthening legal certainty for their cross-border operations. It is worth mentioning that the Digital Agenda for Europe[9] refers to the proposed legislation on electronic identification and eSignatures[10], which includes the issue of administrative formalities related to these identification instruments.
According to the recent Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan[11], reducing excessive regulatory burden remains on the top of the Commission's political agenda. The Action Plan calls for the elimination or reduction of red tape whenever possible for all businesses and particularly for micro-enterprises including the self-employed and liberal professions, who are exceptionally vulnerable to the burdens of bureaucracy due to their smaller size and limited human and financial resources. Against this background, it contains the commitment of the Commission to propose legislation abolishing burdensome authentication requirements for public documents which SMEs have to produce to conduct cross-border business within the Single Market. This commitment supports the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy for growth and jobs[12], in particular the improvement of the business environment in Europe.
All the mentioned initiatives feed the determined EU contribution to move decisively beyond the financial and economic crisis.
Consequently, cutting red tape, simplifying the procedures for cross-border use and acceptance of public documents between the Member States as well as harmonizing the related rules contributes to all actions aimed at moving towards the creation of a citizens' Europe and a well-functioning Single Market for EU businesses.
On 25 May 1987, the Member States adopted the Brussels Convention abolishing the legalisation of documents between the Member States of the European Communities. However, that Convention has not entered into force, since it has not been ratified by all Member States but it is applied provisionally by six of them in relation to each other.
Notwithstanding, the aim of the EU to be an area of advanced social and economic integration should enable citizens and businesses to fully benefit from the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Treaties and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and entitle them to a simplification of their everyday life and business going beyond the standards established by existing instruments of Union and international law.
This proposal is one of the key initiatives in the European Year of Citizens 2013[13] and provides at the same time a concrete contribution to the policy of the Justice for Growth. The proposal draws inspiration and complements the mentioned actions, initiatives and commitments of the Union in that it promotes the full enjoyment by Union citizens and businesses of their key rights attached to Union citizenship and internal market. It brings added value by establishing horizontal principles on the use and acceptance of public documents between the Member States, complementing existing sectoral Union law in this area, filling the gaps in those areas which remain currently unregulated by Union law and supporting EU initiatives aimed at simplifying the life of citizens and business conditions for economic operators[14]. In parallel, the proposal promotes the principle of mutual trust between the authorities of the Member States, because it improves their knowledge on public documents of other Member States and also creates administrative cooperation between authorities.
The mobility of Union citizens is a practical reality, evidenced in particular by the fact that some 12 million of them study, work or live in another Member State of which they are not nationals. This mobility is facilitated by the rights attached to the citizenship of the European Union: in particular the right to free movement and, more generally, the right to be treated like a national in the Member State of residence. These rights demonstrate and promote a better understanding of the value of European integration.
The same is true for EU businesses, in particular SMEs. Nearly half of them are involved in some sort of international contact and a no less important number makes regularly use of the internal market freedoms through cross-border business transactions or clientele in various Member States.
Despite the fact that the right to freedom of movement and residence as well as the internal market freedoms are firmly anchored in primary Union law and substantially developed in secondary Union law, a gap still remains between the existing legal rules and the reality confronting citizens and businesses when they seek to exercise those rights in practice.
Today, if Union citizens and businesses exercise their free movement rights or internal market freedoms by, for example, choosing to reside or do business in another Member State, they face a series of difficulties when presenting the necessary public documents to the authorities and getting them accepted by that Member State contrary to its own nationals and businesses. The common function of these documents is to establish evidence of facts recorded by an authority. In most cases they are presented in order to obtain access to a right, to receive a service or to comply with an obligation. Even when these documents are fully legal and unproblematic in their country of origin, the citizens and businesses still have to undergo disproportionate and burdensome administrative formalities to prove their authenticity in the other Member State. This is often a source of frustration and irritation, and is not conducive to achieving a citizens' Europe.
The administrative formalities in question are legalisation and Apostille, required to establish the authenticity of public documents so that they can be used outside the Member State where they have been issued. They concern particularly the authenticity of the signature and the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted. Other formalities which serve a similar purpose in cross-border situations are certification requirements for copies and translations.
Legalisation and Apostille are characterised by a legal framework that is fragmented because it is based on several sources: national laws that differ considerably from one another; a number of international multilateral and bilateral conventions which have been ratified by a varied and limited number of countries and which are unsuitable when it comes to providing the solutions needed to ensure the free movement of Europeans; fragmented EU law which deals only with certain limited aspects of the matters raised. The result is a lack of clarity and a regulatory framework which does not provide the legal certainty European citizens and businesses need to cope with matters that have a direct impact on their everyday lives.
All the identified formalities require administrative steps and involve some loss of time and a quite considerable cost which varies greatly from one Member State to another. Furthermore, they do not necessarily prevent fraud and forgery of public documents. As a result, they can be considered outdated and disproportionate mechanisms for ensuring the wished objectives of legal security. More effective, secure and simpler mechanisms or systems should be identified, which would allow to consolidate mutual trust and to promote closer cooperation between the Member States within the Single Market, in particular as regards a more effective prevention of fraud and forgery of public documents.
The existing linguistic obstacles are exacerbated by the absence of multilingual standard forms at Union level for the most frequently used public documents between the Member States.
Difficulties in terms of costs and time arise also for national public administrations.
To summarise, there are several problem drivers justifying the need for EU action:
1. increased intra-EU mobility of Union citizens and businesses facing the identified administrative formalities, which cause cost and loss of time;
2. indirect discrimination of nationals of other Member States in comparison with own nationals in cross-border scenarios;
3. fragmented legal framework at EU and international level as regards legalisation, Apostille and administrative cooperation;
4. shortcomings of existing EU and international laws concerning the cirulation of public documents.
These problem drivers are analysed in detail in the Impact Assessment accompanying the proposal.
The general objective of this proposal of a horizontal nature is to simplify the identified administrative formalities in order to facilitate and enhance the exercise of the Union citizens' right to free movement within the EU and of businesses' right to freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services within the Single Market, whilst upholding the general public policy interest of ensuring the authenticity of public documents.
More concretely, the proposal aims at:
· reducing practical difficulties caused by the identified administrative formalities, in particular cutting the related red tape, costs and delays;
· reducing translation costs related to the free circulation of public documents within the EU;
· simplifying the fragmented legal framework regulating the circulation of public documents between the Member States;
· ensuring a more effective level of detection of fraud and forgery of public documents;
· eliminating risks of discrimination among Union citizens and businesses.
The proposal is streamlining the rules and procedures applied currently between the Member States concerning the verification of authenticity of certain public documents and at the same time complementing the existing sectorial Union law, including rules relating to the circulation of specific public documents, by abolishing the requirements of legalisation, Apostille and simplifying the use of copies and translations. It draws inspiration from the existing sectorial Union law and relevant international instruments, whilst reinforcing confidence in public documents issued in other Member States. The proposal does not, on the other hand, modify the existing sectorial Union law which contains provisions on legalisation, similar formality, other formalities or administrative cooperation, but complements it.
The scope of this proposal covers public documents issued by authorities of the Member States and having formal evidentiary value relating to birth, death, name, marriage, registered partnership, parenthood, adoption, residence, citizenship, nationality, real estate, legal status and representation of a company or other undertaking, intellectual property rights and absence of a criminal record. Documents drawn up by private persons and documents issued by authorities of third States are excluded from its scope.
This proposal is a follow-up to the 2010 Commission Green Paper concerning administrative formalities which serve the purpose of authentication of public documents between the Member States. It focuses on establishing the authenticity of public documents, drawing inspiration from the existing EU law and relevant international instruments. It is important to stress that the proposal does not address the issue of recognition of effects of public documents between the Member States nor does it introduce full harmonisation of all public documents existing in the Member States or situations in which they are needed in cross-border scenarios by EU citizens and businesses.
The Union multilingual standard forms to be established by this proposal will not produce legal effects as regards the recognition of their content in the Member States where they will be presented. These standard forms will not prejudice the use of equivalent public documents drawn up by authorities of the issuing Member State. When used, they will have the same formal evidentiary value as their national equivalents as regards their authenticity. Their primary purpose will be the reduction of the remaining translation requirements for Union citizens and businesses.
Contents
- Results of consultations with the interested parties and impact assessment
- Legal elements of the proposal
- BUDGETARY IMPLICATION
- 1.1 General context
- 1.2 Grounds and objectives of the proposal
- 1.3 Scope and legal effects
- 1.3.1 Scope
- 1.3.2 Legal effects
- 3.1 Summary of the proposed action
- 3.1.1 Subject matter and Scope (Articles 1 and 2)
- 3.1.2 Definitions (Article 3)
- 3.1.3 Exemption from legalisation or similar formality (Article 4)
- 3.1.4 Simplification of other formalities (Articles 5 and 6)
- 3.1.5 Request for information in case of reasonable doubt (Article 7)
- 3.1.6 Administrative cooperation (Articles 8, 9 and 10)
- 3.1.7 Union multilingual standard forms (Articles 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15)
- 3.1.8 Relations with others instruments (Articles 16, 17 and 18)
- 3.1.9 Review (Article 21)
- 3.2 Legal basis
- 3.3 Subsidiarity and Proportionality
- 3.3.1. Subsidiarity principle
- 3.3.2. Proportionality principle
- 3.4 Impact on Fundamental Rights
- 4.1. Budgetary impact
- 4.2. Simplification
- 4.3. Consistency with other Union policies
An extensive consultation has taken place with the interested parties, Member States and the public, in particular following the adoption of the Commission Green Paper. The Commission has received altogether a high number of contributions from Member States, national and international professional organisations as well as from citizens. As described above, this proposal relates exclusively to the first part of the Green Paper 'the free movement of public documents'. The second part regarding 'the recognition of the effects of civil status records' is not addressed in the current proposal.
It results from the contributions that the majority of the Member States and of the stakeholders welcomed the Commission's intention to abolish the administrative formalities relating to the verification of authenticity of public documents. However, they underlined the need to introduce accompanying safeguards, such as the possibility to verify the authenticity of public documents through strengthened EU-wide administrative cooperation in order to facilitate the transition from the current system to the new framework and ensure legal certainty and minimize fraud.
The Commission continued to meet and consult with relevant stakeholders in 2012 to complete and update the contributions to the first part of the Green Paper. Meetings were held with, amongst others, the International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS), the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE), the European Association of Registrars (EVS), the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium Enterprises (UEAMPE), the European Land Registry Association (ELRA) and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).
A meeting with Member States Experts was held on 27 September 2012 to discuss a working paper containing the main elements of the proposal. The Commission continued to discuss these elements with experts from several Member States.
The Commission has also carried out a thorough Impact Assessment which accompanies the proposal.
The proposal establishes a clear set of horizontal rules exempting public documents falling under its scope from legalisation or similar formality (Apostille). In also foresees simplification of other formalities related to the cross-border acceptance of public documents, namely of certified copies and certified translations. In order to guarantee the authenticity of public documents which circulate from one Member State to another, it introduces an effective and secure administrative cooperation based on the Internal Market Information System ("the IMI"), established by Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012.[15] The IMI includes also a functionality to maintain a repository of model templates of public documents used within the Single Market that can serve as first checking point of unfamiliar documents.
The proposal also establishes Union multilingual standard forms concerning birth, death, marriage, registered partnership and legal status and representation of a company or other undertaking. In addition, with the aim to further reduce the remaining translation requirements for EU citizens and businesses, such Union multilingual standard forms could be established at a later stage for public documents relating to name, parenthood, adoption, residence, citizenship and nationality, real estate, intellectual property rights and absence of a criminal record. The Union multilingual standard forms should not be mandatory but when used they have the same formal evidentiary value as the simular public documents drawn up by the authorities of the issuing Member State.
The main features of the proposal can be summarised as follows:
The proposal promotes the free movement of citizens and companies or other undertakings by dispensing certain public documents issued by authorities of the Member States from the accomplishment of all forms of legalisation or of similar or other formalities related to their acceptance in other Member States when presented to their authorities. It also provides for the establishment of Union multilingual standard forms concerning birth, death, marriage, registered partnership and legal status and representation of a company or other undertaking.
It covers public documents which are issued by authorities of a Member State and which have to be presented to authorities of another Member State. The proposal does not deal with the recognition of the content of public documents issued by the authorities of the Member States.
The proposal concerns situations in which the identified public documents are required in cross-border scenarios by: (i) public authorities of the Member States or (ii) entities of the Member States tasked by virtue of an act or administrative decision to carry out public duties.
The proposal contains the definitions of the following terms: public documents, authority, legalisation, similar formality, other formality and central authority. In particular, it stipulates that the term public documents means only documents issued by authorities of a Member State and having formal evidentiary value relating to birth, death, name, marriage and registered partnership, parenthood, adoption, residence, citizenship and nationality, real estate, legal status and representation of a company or other undertaking, intellectual property rights, and absence of a criminal record.
Under the proposal, the public documents originating from the Member States and falling under its scope are exempted from all forms of legalisation or similar formality foreseen by the Hague Convention of 1961 abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents when presented to the authorities of other Member States, as a general principle.
Under the proposal, authorities cannot require parallel presentation of the original of a public document and of its certified copy issued by the authorities of other Member States. In addition, authorities have to accept a non-certified copy if the original document is presented together with such a copy and furthermore they have to accept certifications issued in other Member States.
The proposal foresees that authorities should accept non-certified translations of public document issued by the authorities of other Member States. If the authorities of the Member State in which the public document is presented have reasonable doubt about the correctness or quality of its translation in an individual case, they may require a certified translation of that document.
The proposal foresees that if the authorities of the Member State in which the public document or its certified copy are presented have reasonable doubt, which cannot be otherwise resolved, concerning their authenticity, in particular as to the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted, or the identity of the seal or stamp, they may submit a request for information to the relevant authorities of the Member State where these documents were issued. In case a particular national authority does not have access to the Internal Market Information System, it may request information from the central authority of its Member State under the procedure laid down by that Member State. When the central authority is unable to respond to such request, it shall transmit the request to the central authority of the Member State where the document was issued. The requested authorities should reply to such requests within the shortest possible period of time which should not take longer than one month at maximum.
The proposal stipulates that the Internal Market Information System should be used for the purposes of requests for information in cases of reasonable doubt about the authenticity of public documents as well as about their certified copies. The Internal Market Information System is a software application accessible via Internet, developed by the Commission in cooperation with the Member States in order to assist Member States with the practical implementation of information exchange requirements laid down in Union acts, such as in this Regulation. It allows collecting templates of national public documents in its repository that will also help the authorities, including on linguistic aspects, by making them familiar with the documents of other Member States.
Furthermore, the proposal contains detailed rules concerning the designation, functions and meetings of the central authorities. Among others, the central authorities provide and regularly update best practices on the prevention of fraud of public documents.
The proposal establishes Union multilingual standard forms in all official languages concerning birth, death, marriage, registered partnership and legal status and representation of a company or other undertaking contained in its Annexes I, II, III, IV and V respectively. The Union multilingual standard forms will be available to citizens and companies or other undertakings parallel and as an alternative to the national public documents on a voluntary basis and given the same formal evidentiary value as the simular public documents issued by the authorities of the issuing Member State. If a Union multilingual standard form has been established for a particular public document, the authorities of a Member State must issue such form upon request in case an equivalent public document exists in that Member State. The question which authorities issue the forms falls under the national law of each Member State. It must be issued under the same conditions (e.g. as regard the fees) as the equivalent public document existing in that Member State. These standard forms do not produce legal effects as regards the recognition of their content in the Member States where they will be presented.
Taking into account the increasing use of modern communication technologies in the area of public documents, the Commission will develop electronic versions of Union multilingual standard forms or other formats suitable for electronic exchange and will encourage the Member States to make them available to Union citizens and companies or other undertakings.
The Commission will develop detailed guidance on the issuance of Union multilingual standard forms in cooperation with central authorities of the Member States.
The proposal does not prejudice the application of Union law which contains provisions on legalisation, similar formality or other formalities nor the application of Union law on electronic signatures and electronic identification. Finally, the proposal does not prejudice the use of other systems of administrative cooperation established by Union law which provide for exchange of information between the Member States in specific areas (e.g. CCN/CSI system in the area of taxation and customs).
The Commission should evaluate the application of the Regulation every three years and prepare a report, accompanied by proposals for amendments. In this context, the Commission should in particular consider if the scope of the Regulation should be extended to further categories of public documents. In addition, the Commission should reflect the benefits of proposing of further Union multilingual standard for public documents relating to name, parenthood, adoption, residence, citizenship and nationality, real estate, intellectual property rights and absence of a criminal record, or to categories falling under the potentially extended scope.
This proposal is based on Article 21 TFEU which empowers the European Parliament and the Council to adopt provisions with a view to facilitating the exercise of the rights of Union citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in the Treaties and by the measures adopted to give them effect. Administrative obstacles to the cross-border use and acceptance of public documents have a direct impact on the free movement of citizens. Thus, removing these obstacles would facilitate the exercise of the free movement of citizens as foreseen in Article 21 TFEU.
This Article is combined with Article 114 TFEU which empowers the European Parliament and the Council to adopt measures for the approximation of the provisions which have as their object the establishment and functionning of the internal market. Administrative obstacles to the cross-border use and acceptance of public documents have a direct impact on the full enjoyment of the internal market freedoms of EU businesses as described in Article 26 TFEU and referred to in Article 114 TFEU. It is therefore the suitable complementary legal basis to cover public documents used by EU businesses in cross-border scenarios within the internal market.
The measures provided for in Article 21 and Article 114 TFEU are adopted by means of the ordinary legislative procedure laid down in Article 294 TFEU, and after consulting the Economic and Social Committee as regards measures foreseen under Article 114 TFEU.
A Regulation appears to be the most appropriate legislative form of the proposal, taking into account both the problems and objectives identified.
This proposal complies with the requirements of subsidiarity.
The problems outlined above and in the Impact Assessment accompanying this proposal have a clear cross-border dimension and cannot by their nature be properly dealt with at the level of the Member States. Any unilateral action by the Member States would run counter to the objective of legal certainty and predictability for citizens and economic operators and would further increase the existing legislative patchwork. In addition, the Member States are unable to offer effective solutions to the relating challenges due to their EU dimension. An EU level action would help Union citizens and businesses to use different categories of public documents in cross-border situations without disproportionate and burdensome administrative formalities. For these reasons, an EU action would ensure higher efficiency. The adoption of a directly applicable simplifying measure containing horizontal principles on the free circulation of public documents between the Member States as well as the establishment of Union multilingual standard forms demonstrate the clear added value of such an action.
The proposal complies with the principle of proportionality in that it is strictly limited to what is necessary to achieve its objectives. It does not try to harmonise the public documents of the Member States or rules governing their circulation within the EU. The proposal focuses only on the abolition or simplification of the identified administrative formalities, with the necessary accompanying elements to enable the verification of authenticity of public documents in cases of reasonable doubt.
The accompanying Impact Assessment demonstrates that the benefits of the key elements of this proposal outweigh the costs and that the proposed measures are proportionate.
In accordance with the Strategy for the effective implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights by the European Union[16], the Commission has ensured that the proposal complies with the rights set out in the Charter and more importantly, that it further promotes their application. In this respect, the proposal in particular:
· addresses the indirect discrimination of nationals of other Member States in comparison with own nationals since public documents emanating from other Member States would no longer require additional administrative formalities as compared to identical or equivalent domestic documents that are more often used by own nationals (Article 18 TFEU);
· promotes the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, to seek employment, to exercise the right of establishment and to provide services or condut business in other Member States (Articles 45, 15 and 16 of the Charter);
· postively impacts on the right to respect for private and family life, the right to marry and found a family, the right to property as well as on the rights of the child (Articles 7, 9, 17 and 24 of the Charter).
The Commission has also verified that the proposal fully complies with Article 8 of the Charter guaranteeing the right to the protection of personal data, in particular as regards the exchange and transmission of data under the proposed administrative cooperation based on the Internal Market Information System.
The fundamental rights assessment is described in detail in the Impact Assessment accompanying this proposal.
The only minor costs expected for the EU budget relate to training activities and to meetings. The Internal Market Information System is flexible and can accommodate any national administrative structure (centralised, fully decentralised or in between) and its use generates no IT costs for the Member States. The Internal Market Information System works currently with ca. 13 000 registered users in several legislative areas (professional qualifications, services, SOLVIT case handling, posting of workers, cash in transit and patients' rights). Setting-up a new IMI module to support the administrative cooperation foreseen by this proposal will not require any new costs and can be covered by the generic workflows which have already been developed (e.g. software development, translation functionalities, maintenance of the system, support services, etc.). Consequently, there will be no need to establish new specific server for public documents.
Adding of new users to the Internal Market Information System after the application of this Regulation could be handled within the capacity of the current IMI infrastructure. As regards potential training costs under this proposal, these will be covered by a cost-sharing model including the contribution of the Commission's DG Justice. It is estimated that the total one-shot costs for the necessary training activities on the Internal Market Information System related exclusively to this proposal would be around 50 000 EUR.
Simplification of the identified administrative formalities would greatly facilitate the life of Union citizens and businesses (in particular SMEs) when using public documents in cross-border situations.
The proposal is a simplification measure of a horizontal nature. The abolition of the disproportinate and burdensome administrative formalities proving the authenticity of various public documents will facilitate and enhance the exercise of the Union citizens' right to free movement within the EU and the businesses' (in particular SMEs') right to freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services within the internal market.
The administrative cooperation based on the Internal Market Information System will support requests for information in cases of reasonable doubt and the implementation of the new rules. Authorities will benefit from its existing functionalities, including the provision of a multilingual system for communications, pre-translated and standard questions and answers as well as from a repository of templates of public documents used within the internal market. The exchange of information and documents by electronic means will allow efficient and secure exhanges of electronic versions of public documents.
Finally, the Union multilingual standard forms concerning birth, death, marriage, registered partnership and legal status of a company will reduce the remaining translation requirements of Union citizens and businesses, with a beneficial impact on the cross-border use of the documents concerned. This positive effect can be further increased in the future by considering similar Union multilingual standard forms for additional public documents used frequently by Union citizens and businesses.
This proposal is part of the Commission's efforts to dismantle the obstacles faced by Union citizens in their daily lives when exercising the rights confered on them by Union law, as outlined in the 2010 EU Citizenship Report, and at the same time to facilitate cross-border activites of EU businesses (in particular SMEs) in the internal market.