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Council Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 of 25 June 2019 on jurisdiction, the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, and on international child abduction, entered into force on 1st August 2022.

This regulation replaces and recasts Council Regulation (EC) 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility (Regulation Brussels II bis), repealing Regulation (EC) 1347/2000 (Regulation Brussels II). It is now known as Brussels II ter.

It aims to help to strengthen legal certainty and increase flexibility, to ensure that access to court proceedings is improved and to ensure that such proceedings are made more efficient. It should therefore make the handling of cross-border disputes involving children faster and less costly, without harming the interests of children.

It applies in civil matters of:

a) divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment;

b) the attribution, exercise, delegation, restriction or termination of parental responsibility.

The regulation puts forward the abolition of any form of procedure for the recognition of a decision rendered in the European Union to be enforced in another country of the European Union (Articles 34 et seq.), as is already the case in other European regulations, by means of the issue of a certificate served on the person against whom enforcement is sought prior to the first enforcement measure (Article 55), in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2020/1784 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2020 relating to the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters.