Press Release: EU rules to ease cross-border successions are now law

New European Union rules to reduce legal headaches when a family member with property in another EU country passes away will be published in the Official Journal tomorrow. This means that they are becoming EU law. The new regulation on cross-border successions, proposed by the European Commission, and formally adopted by EU Member States last month, will make it easier for European citizens to handle the legal side of an international will or succession.

The rules will bring legal certainty to the estimated 450,000 European families dealing with an international succession each year. With over 12.3 million EU citizens resident in another EU country, the rules are likely to be of interest to many more. Member States now have three years to align their national laws so that the new EU rules become effective.