Divorce in your country of choice

INTERNATIONAL couples living in France are to be given the freedom to choose which country they divorce in under a new EU agreement, but half of member states, including the UK, are not taking part.

Fourteen countries have signed up to the cross-border divorce deal, which will come into force in mid-2012.

It means that a French man and his Belgian wife could decide which of the two country’s rules should apply in case of separation. If the pair lived in any other participating EU states, they could also opt for that country’s divorce regime.

A British man, permanently resident in France and married to an Italian woman, could therefore choose between French or Italian rules, but not British ones.

The new rules only apply to marriages: not civil partnerships or the French pacs.

The EC says about 13 per cent of the one million divorces that take place in the EU each year concern couples of different nationalities.