Children

Updated : 12/2011

Child abduction by parent

If your child has been wrongfully removed by your former partner from one EU country to another (without your authorisation or in violation of decisions taken by the courts in the EU country where you and the child live), you can launch legal proceedings to enforce your custody rights.

The final decision will be taken by the courts in the country where the child lived with the custodial parent before the abduction.

So it is impossible to attempt to reverse a decision on custody in the EU by abducting a child and having a court in a different country make a custody ruling. If you want to try to reverse a custody decision, you must lodge an appeal in that same court.

The courts of the country to which a child has been wrongfully brought will order the child to be returned to the custodial parent.

Exceptions

if the child might be in danger in that country/with that parent
if the child is old enough to declare that it does not want to return.

Both the child and custodial parent have the right to be heard by the court during the procedure.

Exception – Denmark

It does not apply the principle that the court of the country where the child was resident has final say in an abduction case.

Denmark does not participate in EU judicial cooperation on child abduction, so Danish decisions are not recognised in other EU countries under EU law.

However, Denmark and all other EU countries are parties to the 1980 Hague Convention on Child Abduction , so decisions in this area are recognised on that basis.

Sample story

Making sure custody rights are respected

Irena and Vincenzo, a couple going through a divorce, lived in Italy for 14 years. In 2007, an Italian court granted Vincenzo custody of their daughter Alessandra and ordered her to be placed provisionally in a children’s home in Pisa. On the same day, Irena travelled with her daughter to Slovenia, where they are still living today.

A Slovenian court recognised the Italian court order and launched the procedure to return Alessandra to her father, but Irena opposed this decision.

Citing the best interests of the child, the Slovenian court granted Irena provisional custody of Alessandra, on the grounds that placing her in a children’s home in Italy could cause irreversible trauma. Also, Alessandra had expressed her desire to remain with her mother during the court proceedings in Slovenia.

Vincenzo appealed the Slovenian court's decision. The European Court of Justice concluded that a court in an EU country on whose territory a child is present cannot grant custody to one parent if a court in another EU country has already granted custody to the other parent. Alessandra was returned to Italy.

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Footnote

In this case, the 27 EU member states + Iceland, Norway and Switzerland