In June 2016, the European Parliament passed a Regulation aiming at reducing the costs and formalities for the citizens who need to present a document issued by a given member state to the institutions of another member state. The Regulation introduces a system for waiving the obligation for legalisation of and placement of an apostille on the documents to certify their authenticity. As a result of enactment of the Regulation, the official documents (e.g. birth certificates, marriage certificates, certificates of clear criminal record) issued in a European Union Member State shall be recognised as authentic in the other Member States without the need of a stamp for authenticity (apostille). The Regulation also eliminates the obligation of the citizens to provide in all cases a certified copy and certified translation of their official documents. To avoid such translation, citizens can also use the multi-language standard certificates in all EU languages, which will be attached to the official documents to facilitate translation.
The Regulation concerns also the official documents, which certify the following facts: birth; that a person is alive; death; name; marriage, including marital capacity and marital status, divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment, registered partnership, including the capacity for concluding a registered partnership and the status of being into a registered partnership; termination of a registered partnership, legal separation or annulment of a registered partnership; origin, adoption, permanent address and/or place of residence; nationality, clear criminal record; the right of a person to elect and be elected in local elections and European Parliament elections.
The Regulation introduces multi-language standard certificates to facilitate the translation of official documents related to the following circumstances: birth; that a person is alive; death; marriage (including marital capacity and marital status); registered partnership (including the capacity for concluding a registered partnership and the status of being into a registered partnership); permanent address and/or place of residence; clear criminal record.
Within two and a half years of entering into force of the Regulation, or by the end of 2018, the Member States are supposed to take all measures for implementation of the Regulation after the expiry of this term.