(LUXEMBOURG) - European justice ministers agreed new guidelines Friday to help ensure that separated parents do not escape their obligation to pay maintenance and child support.

The ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, decided to remove the main legal barriers that stop judges from enforcing claims for such payments when the spouse who is supposed to pay lives in another European Union country.

Once adopted, court rulings in any country in the 27-nation bloc will be valid in all the others, except for Denmark which has exercised its opt-out clause in the matter.

The measures could have a widespread impact as divorces between couples from different EU countries make up about 20 percent of all divorces in the bloc.

Britain's justice minister, Jack Straw, welcomed the deal as "really good."

"It's about ensuring that obligations made in one country, by one court or legal system, are properly enforceable in another," he said.

Straw said that such cases "are very distressing. They are bad enough within one jurisdiction but they can be terrible if it's across jurisdictions.

"The current lack of arrangements allows irresponsible parents particularly to evade their proper obligations," he said.

The ministers said their decision would make it easy for people to obtain an enforcement order for payment, "easily, quickly and generally free of charge."

Justice and Home Affairs Council, 6 June 2008

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