The Blog is the main channel through which to be kept informed on the latest from the Project and the Partners . Its main purpose is to contribute to building a solid network among many different actors and professionals active in the fields of private international law in family matters and migration law (such as practitioners and national authorities; public and private entities; policy makers and academics focusing on either one of these fields or both). Reaching these groups and hopefully having their valuable contribution is the best way to spread the key message of FAMIMOVE: to coordinate legal rules that move from different perspectives (private international law and migration law) but operate in the same situations and to enhance cooperation between administrative and judicial authorities in this area.
Why are such coordination and cooperation both feasible and desirable?
A little step backward…
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, clearly state that the child’s best interests must be a primary consideration in all cases concerning children. Protection of children has been a general aim of the EU since the Lisbon Treaty. Since then, protection of children has been mainstreamed in all EU legislation and policies. Since 2010 it has become one of the EU Commission’s major aims also regarding asylum and migration law. However, the implementation of the child’s best interest principle, especially in cases involving migration, leaves much room for improvement.
Back in 2017 two short-term studies commissioned by the JURI committee of the European Parliament identified the lack of coordination between international family law and migration law as an important target for improving the implementation of the child’s best interests principle (see “Private International Law in a Context of Increasing International Mobility: Challenges and Potential” and “Children on the Move: A Private International Law Perspective”, both prepared by core member of the current project’s network. These two fields of law exist and operate to a large extent parallel to each other with insufficient institutionalised links and insufficient awareness of the linkages between them.
On the one hand, the legal instruments dealing with international family protection (with the Brussels IIter Regulation as the core instrument) regulate competence among judges and authorities in regard to cross-border families and children. EU and international instruments provide answers to questions such as which judge will assess parental responsibility for the children, which law will determine the amount of maintenance due, or which authority will be responsible for the cross-border placement of a child.
On the other hand, EU migration law is concerned with issues such as access to a Member State, the right to reside in a Member State temporarily or permanently, and the possibilities for family reunification. EU asylum law regulates, among others, the criteria and the procedures to qualify for refugee status or subsidiary protection status and addresses questions such as which Member State is responsible for the asylum application and possible transfers between Member States. Only in assuring the coordination of these legal instruments and the cooperation between administrative and judicial authorities can the best interests of children be guaranteed in line with their fundamental rights within the EU’s judicial area.
… A great leap forward!
FAMIMOVE will mainly contribute to on-the-ground cooperation between administrative and judicial authorities within the EU, and, insofar as possible, between EU Member States and countries of origin of non-EU migrant children. It will lead to much-needed evidence-based insights on cooperation procedures between migration authorities and civil protection authorities or the lack thereof. The extra-EU dimension of the problems under review will also benefit from further cooperation with relevant International Organisations. The overall goal is to ensure solid network-building and lasting cooperation among different authorities responsible for migrant children as well as a better dissemination of information about the relevant instruments of international child protection.
To that end, FAMIMOVE will start with a series of awareness raising seminars in each of the seven countries represented in FAMIMOVE (Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, and Sweden) bringing together representatives of the main stakeholders involved in handling cases with migrant children. Alongside, three transnational roundtables will explore possibilities for improvement with key players from several European countries, looking into intra EU recognition of guardianship, kafala, and child marriage. The findings of the project will be presented at a final European Conference which will discuss the results of the research and of the empirical work of FAMIMOVE.
Do you want to contribute to the Project or are you just curious? To be sure that you won’t miss anything about FAMIMOVE check-out the project’s timeline and connect with FAMIMOVE LinkedIn profile
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