A new draft law for the amendment of the Family Code was introduced in the National Assembly on December 20, 2024.
Amendments are proposed to Articles 59, 127, and 127a of the Family Code, as well as to the Bulgarian Personal Documents Act and the Civil Procedure Code.
The amendments are proposed for the following reasons:
- With the amendment to Article 59, the possibility of joint exercise of parental rights over a child born from a marriage is introduced, even in the case of divorce by lawsuit. This is a more favorable decision for the child, preserving emotional bonds with both parents. The separation of the parents would not negatively affect the child’s moral and comprehensive development and upbringing. Joint exercise of parental rights will allow the child to maintain the natural family environment that existed before the parents’ separation, and to live with both parents.
- An amendment to Article 322 of the Civil Procedure Code is also proposed, as it has not been amended or supplemented since the adoption of the current Family Code in 2009. As a result, two of its paragraphs no longer align with the content of the current Family Code.
The current text of Article 322, paragraph 2 of the Civil Procedure Code does not reflect the limitation of the ex officio principle in divorce proceedings only to matters concerning minor children—parental rights, personal relationships, maintenance, and use of the family home. The proposed amendment will maintain the ex officio pronouncement on these matters if the spouses cannot reach an agreement regarding the exercise of parental rights and personal relationships. However, the ex officio pronouncement should exclude issues affecting only the spouses—family name, maintenance, and use of the family home—if there are no minor children from the marriage. For these matters, the court must be explicitly seized.
The institution of joint exercise of parental rights after divorce has been introduced in several European countries. It also exists in our reality, but only if the parents reach an agreement on the exercise of parental rights and the child’s place of residence. The proposed amendments to Article 59 will make it possible to harmonize the consequences of divorce by agreement and by lawsuit.
In Article 59, paragraph 2 of the Family Code, a new approach is proposed for resolving disputes between parents regarding children’s travel abroad. Until now, this dispute was resolved under Article 127a of the Family Code. These cases arise when one parent wants to travel with the child abroad for a trip or vacation, or when the child wishes to travel alone with classmates for a trip abroad or for an international competition, but the other parent disagrees with the travel. In such cases, the parents approach the court to resolve the dispute regarding the child’s travel. Practice shows that cases under Article 127a, which are resolved under the general lawsuit procedure, take a long time and often the dispute becomes irrelevant, as the requested trip is missed by the time the court issues a decision. Parents often also seek to resolve other disputes and relationships in such cases, which negatively affects the children.
Our team will follow up on the final adoption of the amendment.
The news above is for information purposes only. It is not a (binding) legal advice. For a thorough understanding of the subjects covered and prior acting on any issue discussed we kindly recommend Readers consult Ilieva, Voutcheva & Co. Law Firm attorneys at law.
