Finland's Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green) fears that the European Union could face a split in matters of family law if no agreement is reached on the contentious matter of EU legislation on divorce.
"There is a danger that two worlds of values will emerge in Europe - a Nordic and a continental one", Brax said on Friday at a meeting of EU ministers of justice in Luxembourg.
Divorce was not officially on the agenda of the meeting, but there was heated discussion in the corridors.
Brax presented her ministerial colleagues with a compromise solution. Finland is the proposed divorce legislation to contain a statement according to which issues of blame, and other matters related to privacy, are not investigated in divorce cases in Finland.
"I feel calm about this. The others have made accommodation", Brax said.
The European Commission wants a law to govern international divorces. Already 170,000 such split-ups take place each year.
The idea is that spouses originating in different countries would be allowed to agree in advance on which country's legislation is to be applied in the proceedings. Finland has no objection to such an arrangement.
The problem for Finland is that under the laws of some countries, the divorce process involves finding a guilty party. This has not been the case in Finland for many years.
Most resistant to the common divorce project is Sweden, which feels that only Swedish laws can be applied in Swedish courts.
Sweden's Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask said on Friday that she had received Brax's paper and that she would examine it closely. She nevertheless did not feel very optimistic about finding a solution.
Brax fears a situation in which Finland and Sweden might have to fall outside EU divorce legislation.
If most of the other countries start increasing their cooperation in family law matters, Nordic influence in the EU could be reduced. This might later weaken the position of those Finns who marry someone from Central or Southern Europe.
