The Maintenance Regulation’s relations with other instruments
Article 68 of the Maintenance Regulation sets forth the Regulation’s relations with other European Community instruments. The Maintenance Regulations modifies the Brussels I Regulation by replacing this instrument’s provisions applicable to matters relating to maintenance obligations. (For the application of the old Brussels I rules relating to maintenance obligations for a transitional period, see Article 75(2) of the Maintenance Regulation).
The Maintenance Regulation, furthermore, replaces in matters relating to maintenance the European Enforcement Order Regulation (applicable since 21 October 2005 in all EU-Member States except Denmark), but not with regard to European Enforcement Orders on maintenance obligations issued in a Member State not bound by the 2007 Hague Protocol.
Finally, in matters relating to maintenance obligations, the Maintenance Regulation is, subject to Chapter V, without prejudice to the application the Legal Aid Directive (Council Directive 2002/8/EC of 27 January 2003 to improve access to justice in cross-border disputes by establishing minimum common rules relating to legal aid for such disputes). The Legal Aid Directive applies between all European Member States with the exception of Denmark and had to be transposed into national law by 30 May 2006.
Regarding relations with international instruments, the Maintenance Regulation provides in Article 69(2) that the Regulation takes “precedence over the conventions and agreements which concern matters governed by [the] Regulation and to which Member States are party”. An exception is regulated in Article 69(3), which provides that the Regulation “shall not preclude the application of the Convention of 23 March 1962 between Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway on the recovery of maintenance by the Member States which are party thereto [...]”.
This means that the Maintenance Regulation takes precedence over the existing Hague Maintenance Conventions of 1958 and 1973 as well as over the 1956 UN Convention. The Regulation also generally takes precedence over the new Lugano Convention, which in its Article 64(1) clarifies that its does not prejudice the application by the European Community States of the Brussels I Regulation and any amendments thereof (see however Article 64 (2) of the new Lugano Convention).
Also, in relation with the 2007 Hague Convention (which has not yet entered into force – status 20 April 2012) the European Maintenance Regulation will take precedence; Article 51(4) of the 2007 Hague Convention clarifies that the Hague Convention will „not affect the rules of the Regional Economic Integration Organisation, whether adopted before or after the conclusion of the Convention [...] [a]s concerns the recognition or enforcement of decisions as between Member States of the Regional Economic Integration Organisation“.