The new Brussels IIb Regulation (Council Regulation (EU) No 2019/1111 of 25 June 2019 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, as well as international child abduction (recast)) will apply to all proceedings relating to matrimonial matters and parental responsibility brought from 1 August.
The former Brussels IIa Regulation will continue to govern proceedings instituted before that date and the decisions given in those proceedings.
On 29 July, the Belgian Official Gazette published the law implementing the Regulation in our national law: a thorough rewriting of the provisions 1322bis et seq. of the Judicial Code, which govern return proceedings based on the 1980 Hague Convention (new Articles 1322ter to 1322nonies/4 CJ), those which may take place, within the Union, after a decision of non-return, taken either in Belgium (new Article 1322undecies CJ) or in another Member State (new Article 1322duodecies CJ), placements abroad (new Article 1322quaterdecies CJ), as well as new provisions to govern the various procedures and appeals relating to the recognition and enforcement of foreign decisions (new Articles 35/1, 35/2, 57/1 of the CoDIP and 387ter of the former CC).
As already announced, the organisers (partnership between the IFJ and the Belgian members of the European Judicial Network) and the speakers of the seminar which took place in Ostend last March, are continuing their efforts to prepare a Belgian practical handbook, paper and electronic edition, which aims at guiding you concretely in the implementation in Belgium of this new regulation.
It will complement the European Practical Guide to the new Regulation, drafted under the auspices of the European Commission, which is at the consultation and review stage and will be sent to you in a future newsletter.