BRUSSELS – The European Parliament has adopted a resolution protecting same-sex couples’ inheritance rights throughout the European Union (EU).
The resolution says individual countries that do not recognize legal partnerships between gay couples should not be able to deny a gay widow or widower the rights they have to their late spouse’s estate under the law of their home country.
It said a state “should not be able to apply the public-policy exception in order to set aside the law of another state or to refuse to recognize, or, as the case may be, accept, or enforce a decision, an authentic instrument, or a court settlement from another member state when doing so would be contrary to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and in particular Article 21, which prohibits all forms of discrimination.”
Dennis de Jong, Dutch member of the European Parliament and vice-president of the Anti-Racial Discrimination Intergroup, who devotes much of his time to the fight against discrimination, with a particular emphasis on LGBT rights said, “Free movement will only become a full reality when all couples can move across the European Union without worrying about their children, their families, their estate, and one another.”
The Parliament made clear the law creates no new inheritance rights but ensures the law under which a couple married can be enforced in another country.
