Cross-border recovery of maintenance in Europe

It should, however, be noted that the „recognition and enforcement of a decision on maintenance under [the] Regulation [does] not in any way imply the recognition of the family relationship, parentage, marriage or affinity underlying the maintenance obligation which gave rise to the decision“, see Article 22 of the Regulation.

The abolishment of the exequatur holds the promise to considerably speed up the enforcement of Member State decisions in other Member States. Of course, there are still some formalities to be fulfilled when it comes to enforcing a decision from another Member State. After all, the decision remains a decision rendered in another legal system, possibly in a different form and often in a different language. Article 20 of the Regulation lists the documents that need to be transmitted to the competent enforcement authorities in the Member State of enforcement. With a view to simplifying the enforcement of decisions from other Member States, multilingual forms have been developed, which are annexed to the Regulation. For the purpose of enforcement of a decision under Section 1, the form set out in Annex I is to be issued by the court of origin, see Article 20(1) b) of the Regulation.