EU citizens who live in another member state than their home country often had to struggle with bureaucratic procedures and costs. They had to obtain a stamp to prove that their public documents are authentic. Thanks to a new regulation by the EU regarding public documents, those struggles are over.

Certified copies and translations no longer necessary

According to the new regulation, the prove of authenticity is no longer necessary when presenting public documents issued in one EU country to the authorities of another EU country. Citizens are also no longer required to provide a sworn/ official translation of their public document in many cases. Instead, multilingual standard forms are available in all EU languages and can be attached as translation aid.

An EU authority has to accept the documents as authentic when another EU authority issued them. If the receiving authority has reasonable doubts about the authenticity, it will be able to check it with the issuing authority in the other EU country through an existing IT platform, the Internal Market Information System (IMI).

The Regulation covers public documents in the following areas:

• birth
• a person being alive
• death
• name
• marriage, including capacity to marry and marital status
• divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment
• registered partnership, including capacity to enter into a registered partnership and registered partnership status
• dissolution of a registered partnership, legal separation or annulment of a registered partnership
• parenthood
• adoption
• domicile and/or residence
• nationality
• absence of a criminal record and
• the right to vote and stand as a candidate in municipal elections and elections to the European Parliament.

The Regulation introduces multilingual standard forms as translation aids of public documents concerning:

• birth
• a person being alive
• death
• marriage, including capacity to marry and marital status
• registered partnership, including capacity to enter into a registered partnership and registered partnership status
• domicile and/or residence and
• absence of a criminal record.

Find out more on the website of the EU Commission.