Book Description

This is the sixth report from the European Union Committee of the 2009-10 session and looks at the EU's Regulation on Succession (HLP 75, ISBN 9780108459757). In October 2009 the EU Commission proposed legislation which aims to simplify the law affecting those who die having exercised their right to free movement, either by moving to another Member State to live or by buying property in a Member State other than their own. The law of succession regulates how a person's property is dealt with on their death - including the mechanism for paying taxes and other creditors, establishing who is entitled to inherit the deceased's property and how that property is to be transferred to those entitled to it. Where this involves the law of more than one Member State complications arise which can have a significant impact since the people affected are likely to be emotionally vulnerable because of bereavement. The Committee states it welcomes the fact that the Commission has not proposed harmonisation of the substantive law of succession and support the Commission's underlying, and more limited, objective of prescribing which state's law ofsuccession is to apply to the whole of a deceased person's estate; but only to the extent of determining who is entitled to inherit what property. The Committee believes to go further puts at risk important interests, not least property rights, the collection of taxes and the protection of creditors. The Committee also identifies a serious defect in the EU's proposal that it could result in gifts made in the UK by deceased persons during their lifetime, including gifts to charity, being claimed back by their heirs, under a process known as clawback.