The European Commission is firmly committed to removing the obstacles faced by citizens who do not live in their country of origin. As part of its concern, the Commission has presented a policy paper with several options on easing the free circulation of documents that are relevant for citizens, such as birth certificates or property deeds, and has launched a consultation on this matter which will be opened until 30 April 2011.

Around 12 million EU citizens today live in a Member State other than their own, a fact which sometimes causes their complaint about the difficulties for getting public records officially recognised. In some Member States, for instance, citizens have to pay a fee so that their documents, which are already officially issued by one Member State, are recognised as authentic.

In the policy paper adopted by the Commission, citizens are asked questions on how to improve the free circulation of public documents and some policy options for easing the cross-border recognition of civil status documents are proposed. One option could be to develop Europe-wide forms for the most common civil status documents so that citizens no longer have to pay to have them recognised and translated. Another option is the automatic recognition of civil status documents. Such recognition would not involve the harmonisation of existing rules and would leave Member States’ legal systems unchanged.

Citizens willing to take part in the public consultation about Commission's Green Paper on 'Less bureaucracy for citizens: promoting free movement of public documents and recognition of the effects of civil status records' can do so until 30 April 2011. The outcome of the public consultation will be the base for Commission's two separate legislative proposals due in 2013: first, on the free circulation of public documents; and second, on the recognition of civil status situations.

Issues about recognition of public documents affect EU citizens everyday life in essential aspects when they have to use documents such as diplomas, proof of nationality, or property deeds, as well as the recognition of civil status documents recording main “life events” such as birth, adoption, marriage or death, or a person’s surname, and they have moved to another EU country.

These initiatives are part of the Commission's plans to remove bureaucratic obstacles that hinder citizens' lives and impose extra costs and legal uncertainty on businesses. The Commission is therefore taking concrete action to make it easier for the nearly 12 million EU citizens who live outside of their home countries and exercise their EU rights to get married, buy a house or register a car in another EU country.