The Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament agreed on a proposed EU regulation to ensure parental rights granted in one member-state are recognised across the Union [1] independent of the national laws in other states, even if the child is acquired through surrogacy.
This means, for instance, if two people were declared the parents of a child born via surrogacy in one state, even if they have no biological connection to the child, would automatically be regarded as the legal parents of the child if they were to move to any other state. This would circumvent the national laws for establishing legal parenthood and enable ‘surrogacy tourism’ within the EU.
Expressing concern at the development, the Federation of Catholic Family Associations, FAFCE, said that “a child is not an entitlement and parenthood is not a right [2]; rather, a child is a gift and parenthood is a responsibility.”
They added that the current proposals would impose on states the recognition of parenthood established in another state “(i) irrespective of how the child was conceived or born. In a nutshell, it confirms that it shall also cover children born through surrogacy; and (ii) irrespective of the status of the persons asking to be recognized as the parents of the child, going as far as to the so-called “multi parenthood”, as explicitly mentioned in the voted proposals”.