An EU initiative granting automatic cross-border recognition of ‘parenthood’ may impinge on the local surrogacy laws of member nations.

That’s according to the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe.

The European Commission say the initiative will not change the law on marriage of EU Member-States. “Yet – commented the President of FAFCE, Vincenzo Bassi – the introduction of a new legal category, ‘parenthood’, which goes beyond the current terminology of ‘filiation’, does have an impact on family domestic law.”

Indeed, if approved, the initiative would automatically extend the legal effects of filiation to all types of ‘parenthood’ legally acquired in one Member State, including through surrogacy, to all other EU Member-States uniformly.

“Beyond the declared intention of not interfering with Member States’ family law, this scenario would put the Commission’s proposal in contradiction with Art. 9 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, stating that “The right to marry and the right to found a family shall be guaranteed in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of these rights”, he concluded.