New EU law on succession

The 2005 Green Paper on Wills and Succession recommended that the conflicting succession rules in many European countries should be harmonised by a new EU Regulation.A Regulation is a European law which is directly applicable to all member states, therefore once introduced it overrides national law.   The current conflict of law means that when someone dies in another member state than that of their nationality, leaving property in other states, and perhaps having residence in more than one country, more than one set of rules could apply to the succession. For example:Italy’s rules on private international law state that succession is governed by the law of the deceased’s nationality, although they can expressly request in their will that Italian law should apply.The rules of English law state that a person’s immoveable property (their houses) is governed by the law of the place each one is situated, but the moveable property (bank accounts, jewels, paintings, cars) is governed by the law of the person’s domicile.French law states that French succession law will apply to the inheritance of real estate in France, regardless of nationality. The new draft Regulation will propose that one “connecting factor” is applied in the case of succession, where the law of more than one country might otherwise be applicable, ie if a Dutch national died in Italy leaving property in France and the UK. That “connecting factor” is likely to be by default the “last habitual residence”.  However, in making a will a person should be able to choose, if they wish, to apply their national law to their succession.This will change the current private international law rules on succession in Italian law, where the national law of the deceased applies. It should also end the problem English law causes of separating immovable and movable property, although there has already been opposition to this from the UK.The draft Regulation should be published later in 2009 (was due this summer but running late)The new Regulation is expected to be in force by 2012. It is now being referred to as the "Brussels IV Regulation".