European certificate of succession

• Author: Mihaela Patraus
• Position: Associate professor, PhD.,University of Oradea Faculty of Law, Department of Public Law, Romania
• Pages: 78-88

AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/aijjs

ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677

No. 2 (2019), pp. 78 - 88

78

EUROPEAN CERTIFICATE OF SUCCESSION

M. PĂTRĂUȘ, I-M. OFRIM

Mihaela PĂTRĂUȘ

associate professor, PhD.,University of Oradea

Faculty of Law, Department of Public Law, Romania

Ionița Maria OFRIM – Judge

ABSTRACT

The newly created European Certificate of Succession is applicable in almost the

entire EU. It is primarily used to verify an heir’s status and is designed to serve alongside the

existing national inheritance certificates (such as the German Erbschein), making it easier for

heirs to settle inheritance matters abroad. This EU Succession Regulation does not, however,

affect the provisions of individual Member States in the areas of substantive inheritance law

(e. g. the question of who is a legal heir) and inheritance tax law.

This paper aims to analyze how the regulation of the European inheritance certificate

interacts with the regulation of the national inheritance certificate. Thus it does not replace

documents such as the Romanian inheritance certificate but is rather a supplementary

inheritance document.

KEYWORDS: European Certificate of Succession, succession case, heir,

transnational succession cases, habitual residence, disposition of property upon death.

1. INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS

Regulation (EU) 650/2012 introduced new rules of jurisdiction in matters of

succession, applicable in all Member States. However, these rules apply only to the courts and

other authorities and legal professionals with jurisdiction over inheritance matters, who

exercise judicial powers or act on the basis of the delegation of powers by a judicial authority

or act under the control of a judicial authority.

The diversity of the judicial organization between the states of the European Union is

known and clearly observed with respect to the competent authorities in the different Member

States. This legal variety of the competent authorities in the field of inheritance and the fact

that they have different sovereign powers impede the universal effect of the court decisions in

this matter or of the authentic acts and of the certificates issued. Their cross-border effects

depend on the procedures for recognition, exequatur, and over-legalization, procedures that

can be initiated and made often difficult either by bullshit or exaggerated nationalism.

The advent of the European Certificate of Succession (“ECS”) has also proven to be

an extremely important component of the European inheritance law system. The new solution