EU countries have agreed a negotiating position on new rules intended to protect adults who need support in cross-border situations such as selling property, receiving medical care abroad, or moving to another member state.
The planned regulation agreed by the Council of the EU covers adults who may no longer be able to make decisions without help because of conditions linked to ageing, including Alzheimer’s disease, and would apply when they move within the EU, the European External Action Service (EEAS) announced on Friday.
“When people become vulnerable because of a health condition, the law must offer protection,” Costas Fytiris, Cyprus’s Minister of Justice and Public Order, said in the statement.
The text sets out which court or authority is responsible in a cross-border case, which country’s laws apply, and how decisions or powers of representation made in one member state would be recognised and enforced in another.
It adds that protection measures taken in another member state would be recognised automatically, with limited exceptions, and that “authentic instruments” — such as notarial acts — would have the same legal value in other member states as in the country where they were issued.
Certificates, placements and public authorities
The Council agreed provisions on the “placement of an adult” — meaning a court decision on where someone should live, including admission to a care facility when the person cannot express their wishes — and said the procedure would refer to the Hague 2000 Protection of Adults Convention, which allows a member state to oppose a placement on its territory.
The Council also backed creating a European certificate of support and representation, allowing a representative to show in another member state that they are authorised to represent — and, where relevant, support — the adult concerned.
Under the Council position, whether the certificate has legal effect in the member state that issues it would be decided by that country’s national law, rather than being automatic.
Member states could also appoint a competent authority from another member state to represent an adult in need of protection where national law allows, but only with the consent of the member state concerned.
The Council removed a proposal for interconnected registers listing protection measures across member states, citing administrative burden, but asked the European Commission to reassess the idea after the legislation has been implemented.
The Council said its agreed position will be used for negotiations with the European Parliament to finalise the legal text.
