Divorce is not possible on the island but 58 per cent of Maltese favour the EU’s recent rules in favour of facilitating cross-border divorces and separations.
An EU-wide survey on civil justice, released in Brussels this week, shows how 18 per cent of Maltese respondents felt the EU should not get involved in divorce matters while 24 per cent did not reply.
Malta’s results on this question differ significantly from the EU average where the approval rate to the Union’s rules on divorce is 10 per cent higher (68 per cent) than Malta’s.
“Although the EU has no competence on divorce... the fact that the majority of Maltese seem to accept fairer solutions for those who want to end their marriage in the EU can indicate a shift in the traditional anti-divorce stand observed in Malta until a few years ago,” an EU official said. “This does not in any way mean the majority of Maltese are in favour of divorce. All it shows is more openness in Malta towards the idea of a couple obtaining the facility to end a marriage,” the official said.
Malta’s survey results, conducted by Misco last June, are similar to those obtained in other traditionally staunch Catholic member states and which were among the last in Europe to allow divorce.
Apart from Malta, the lowest approval rate to the EU’s cross-border divorce rules were obtained in Ireland (56 per cent) and Poland (59 per cent).
Sweden, the most liberal EU country when it comes to divorce with procedures often completed within weeks, also obtained a low approval rate, 55 per cent. The Swedish government did not join the EU’s initiative as it felt it would undermine its liberal rules.
The survey shows Slovakia (83 per cent), France (80 per cent) and Greece (80 per cent) are the biggest supporters of the EU divorce legislation.
Introduced under the so called enhanced cooperation mechanism last June, the EU’s cross-border divorce rules allow a group of member states to cooperate together without the need of all 27 being involved.
The rules do not harmonise divorce rules in the EU but facilitate procedures in the case of cross-border divorces and streamline the interpretation of divorce rules in member states.
Malta was initially opposed to this idea but changed course when it got an opt-out, meaning Maltese courts did not have any jurisdiction over the interpretation of divorce rules in other member states because the island did not recognise the dissolution of marriage.
Following the approval of the rules, the Maltese government had said despite its position against divorce, the island wanted to take part in the new mechanism as “it feels its interests will be better represented inside the mechanism than outside”. Thus, Malta can be involved in all the directive’s future negotiations.