Divorce between Bulgarian National and Citizen of EU Member State

This article is intended to analyze the conditions for enforcing of divorce between Bulgarian national and citizen of EU member state before the Bulgarian court

The divorce matter is settled in the Bulgarian Family Code which is the only relevant law arranging the relations based on marriage, affinity and adoption; guardianship and trust. The divorce is one of the grounds for termination of the marriage (along with dissolution of the marriage and the death of one of the spouses). According to Article 49 of the Family Code each of the spouses may request divorce when the marriage is deeply and irrevocable broken down.

According to Article 7 of the International Private Law Code the matrimonial matters shall be cognizable in the Bulgarian courts if one of the spouses is a Bulgarian national or is habitually resident in the Republic of Bulgaria. At first view it seems that the Bulgarian court shall be the competent court for divorce always when one of the spouses (the applicant or the respondent) is a Bulgarian national. However, it is not enough condition for the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian court. The Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility which is part of the internal Bulgarian legislation provides that in matters relating to divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment, jurisdiction shall lie with the courts of the Member State in whose territory:

- the spouses are habitually resident, or

- the spouses were last habitually resident, insofar as one of them still resides there, or

- the respondent is habitually resident, or

- in the event of a joint application, either of the spouses is habitually resident, or

- the applicant is habitually resident if he or she resided there for at least a year immediately before the application was made, or

- the applicant is habitually resident if he or she resided there for at least six months immediately before the application was made and is either a national of the Member State in question or, in the case of the United Kingdom and Ireland, has his or her "domicile" there;

OR with the courts of the nationality of both spouses.

What does it mean actually? If one of the spouses is a Bulgarian national married to citizen of UK, for example, and they both live in UK since the date of their marriage, the Bulgarian could not apply for divorce before the Bulgarian court if he/she has not been resided in Bulgaria for at least six months immediately before the divorce application was made. Observing the provisions of the above Regulation, it is considered that this applicant is not habitually resident in the state of his/her nationality. However, if the Bulgarian applicant is not habitually resident in Bulgaria but the respondent (the UK citizen in our example) has been lived in Bulgaria for six months or one year before submitting the application, then it could be possible for the Bulgarian national (the applicant) to apply for divorce before the Bulgarian court. If the both spouses have been lived only in UK, then the UK court shall be the only competent court in case of divorce (regardless the nationality of the one of the spouses).

This article was created by Valova&Angelova law firm.