French inheritance law challenge: Ombudsman sets deadline

EU officials have been asked to provide a fuller explanation of the delay in a decision over France’s 2021 inheritance law – by November 25.

Campaigners pushing for change to the controversial law – which seeks to impose French forced heirship rules on non-French people who used EU law to choose the inheritance law of their country of nationality – have received news from the European Ombudsman.

The campaigners applied to the service due to the vague nature of communications received from the Commission so far. Its job includes investigating complaints about poor administration by EU bodies.

The head of its case handling unit said: “You made a complaint against the European Commission about its failure to properly reply… concerning the state of play of the multiple infringement complaint. We have asked the Commission to provide a more elaborate reply by November 25.”

The French law was originally intended by the government to prevent foreigners living in France from making use of foreign laws to discriminate against their children on grounds such as sex, religion or orientation, with particular mention of daughters possibly losing out related to a choice of Sharia. 

However, in fact it has mostly affected people such as Britons, Americans and Dutch citizens who used their more flexible laws to protect a surviving spouse more than allowed for by French rules on heirs’ reserved portions. 

Having published in February 2023 an acknowledgement of multiple complaints, the European Commission then published an update in February 2024, saying it had written to France concerning its ‘possible breach’ of EU law, and had received a response.

Since then, it has been “examining” the response, which has not been made public.

EU sources told The Connexion in May that part of the reason for the delay may be volume of complaints and time spent examining each one. 

We note, however, that they all revolve around the same point: whether France’s 2021 law breaches EU law due to a clash with rights provided in a EU inheritance regulation, known as ‘Brussels IV’, which allows a choice of inheritance law in people’s wills. Many French lawyers say that it does.

Recently, the Commission told the campaigners in a letter they should “rest assured” that it is “working on the case”. It said several different services had to be involved in the decision on the “next steps”, taking account of “legal and policy factors”.

Read more: French inheritance law challenge – EU issues response 

However, the campaign, led by readers Ronnie Bennett and Trish Miller, found the response to be lacking in detail.

It comes as Ms Miller also reports a positive exchange with the office of Michael McGrath, the new commissioner-designate for justice, who is set to take office shortly following a changeover of commissioners this year.

It invited the campaigners to keep in touch, however, noting that the new Commission has yet to be fully approved (this is expected in the coming weeks).

Lawyers we spoke to said this may be one reason a decision has not been taken, as a final decision on whether there has been a breach of EU law may require a go-ahead from the commissioners.

The campaign has also made contact with the outgoing commissioner for justice, as well as the Commission’s president and vice-president.

Ms Miller, who lodged her complaint to the Commission in December 2022, is thought to have been the first to do so, as Commission officials told us at the time they were not aware of other complaints.

However, they had previously told us in December 2021 they were “aware” of the French law (passed in August 2021), and in August 2022 that an “assessment of the law is ongoing”.

Emails to news@connexionfrance.com can be forwarded to the campaign on request.