Vita gazette – EU regulation rejected. Italy sinks the EU regulation on the rights of children of gay couples. A resolution approved in the Senate against a Commission proposal aims to give children the same rights in all member states.

The Italian Senate has voted against the new regulation of the European Commission to harmonise the rules on the cross-border recognition of children, including same-sex couples or those born through surrogacy, and their rights throughout the EU. Nevertheless, thanks to the votes of the majority, a text proposed by the Brothers of Italy passed in the European Policies Commission of the Upper House of our Parliament. The vote against the ‘European certificate of filiation’ proposed by Brussels was necessary so that “the ban on surrogacy in force in Italy is not bypassed”, declared the senator of FdI, Marco Scurria, secretary of the European Policies Commission.

The Interior Ministry has ordered the Municipality of Milan to register the children of same-sex couples no longer. Twenty-four hours later, the majority quashed the European certificate of filiation in the Senate. It was only a draft, presented on 7 December by Commissioners Vera Jourová and Helena Dalli (who met Elly Schlein in Rome on Friday), which provides that parenthood established in one Member State is recognised in every other Member State without a particular procedure, whether we are talking about children of same-sex or heterosexual couples, children adopted or born with surrogacy where it is allowed.

According to the text of the regulation, this does not require states to recognise gay couples’ right to adopt children, nor does it oblige them to identify the practice of surrogacy in their own country, but only requires them to recognise any children born in other states by gay couples or from surrogacy the same rights as other children. The idea is precisely to harmonise the law of the Member States to ensure that a child who has a right in one nation does not lose it if he goes to another by chance. For example, a child who is the son of a gay couple legally residing and married in Spain should, according to Brussels, be considered the son of both parents even if the family moves to Italy.

Union law already provides that the filiation ascertained in one country is recognised in all the others for specific purposes such as access to the territory, right of residence, and non-discrimination concerning national citizens. Still, the same does not apply to the rights conferred by the nation. The Commission regulation, presented last December, would allow children to benefit in cross-border situations from rights in matters such as succession, maintenance rights or the right of parents to act as legal representatives of the child for education or health reasons. In short, Italy would indeed not be forced to recognise marriage for homosexual couples or to give them the right to adopt. Still, if a gay couple married in Spain and with a child were to move to Italy, both parents should be recognised, for example, the right to pick up the child from school and interact with his teachers. In the same way, the child should have the right to inherit a possible house of one of the two parents.