Facilitating the free movement of public documents in the EU

An opinion approved yesterday by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) calls for eradicating bureaucratic rubber-stamping which is still necessary for the recognition of public documents across EU borders.

The opinion, presented by rapporteur general Vince Farrugia was adopted with 96 votes in favour, two votes against and two abstentions.

In drafting his report Farrugia was supported by two co-drafters from the other two groups and an expert.

The opinion was based on a 2010 Eurobarometer survey which revealed that 73% of EU citizens demanded action to facilitate free movement of public documents in the EU.

The proposal is a key initiative of the European Year of Citizens 2013.

Amongst the documents affected are civil status records such as birth, death, name, marriage, registered partnership, parenthood and adoption as well as other public documents concerning residence, citizenship, nationality, real estate & intellectual property rights, proving the absence of a criminal record, public documents of EU businesses, their legal status and representation. The proposal will have no impact on the recognition of the content or the effects of the documents concerned.

It is estimated that such an initiative will have a tremendous impact. It will affect the over 12 million European citizens working, studying or living in an EU Member State (MS) other than their country of origin and the 7 million SMEs that are involved in cross-border trade, have instruments abroad or subcontracts with companies in another MS. It is estimated that the combined savings on legislation and Apostilles (currently required for around 1.4 million documents) along with certified copies and certified translations could be up to €330 million per year.

The aims of the proposal are to:

• Reducing practical difficulties caused by identified administrative formalities - cutting red tape, costs and delays, rubber- stamping - Removal of legal and apostille requirements for acceptance of documents
• Reduce translation costs - Do away with requirement for certified translations with a simple translation of adequate quality being deemed sufficient. Multilingual standard forms made available
• Simplifying the fragmented legal framework of circulated public documentation with Member States
• Ensuring a more effective level of detection of fraud and forgery of public documentation
• Eliminating risks of discrimination among Union citizens and businesses

The EESC has welcomed the proposal and further outlines that the Internal Market Information System (IMIS) is an important vehicle that should be exploited more aggressively for citizens to exercise their fundamental rights. The EESC also stated that future simplification exercises with regard to public documents should target important public documents such as those related to intra- EU mobility of workers or vulnerable persons such as persons with disabilities.

Most importantly however the new regulation should provide citizens and businesses with the maximum degree of certainty with regards to the extent that public documents presented are exempted from all forms of legislation or similar formality. Therefore the EESC specified that Member States having reasonable doubts as to the authentication of public documents should only be limited to 3 cases: the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted or the identity of the seal or stamp.

The EESC requests that should a Member State make an official request based on reasonable doubt, it is to explicitly inform the person or business of the reasons why such request is being made. In addition to this the EESC also requested that should the Internal Market Information System (IMIS) stabilise, the maximum period for a response under the administrative cooperation mechanism should be reduced to two weeks and not one month as was proposed by the EU Commission. In addition to this the EESC is further asking for extra accountability through benchmarking on a yearly basis.

This is the fourth report drafted by the GRTU's Director General and accepted as EESC Opinion aimed at improving the functioning of the single market and the removal of obstacles within the single market for citizens and businesses.