Notice on multiple complaint CPLT(2022)03325

Notice in English (can be automatically translated)

Pre-closure letter concerning a multiple complaint on an alleged breach by France of the EU rules on succession matters (Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and acceptance and enforcement of authentic instruments in matters of succession and on the creation of a European Certificate of Succession) - CPLT(2022)03325

The European Commission received a large number of complaints alleging a breach by France of the EU rules on succession matters. These complaints were registered under reference CPLT(2022)03325. The Commission acknowledged the receipt of the complaints by publishing a notice on 15 February 2023[1]. The complainants allege that the third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code infringes Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, in particular the provision allowing testators to choose the law of the State of their nationality as the law governing their succession as a whole. The third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code provides for a compensatory levy against estate assets located in France for the benefit of the deceased’s children under certain conditions.

Further to the Commission’s letter of 11 December 2023 to the French authorities to gather additional information about the allegations put forward in the complaints, and the response from the French authorities of 12 February 2024, the Commission launched the so-called pre-infringement dialogue (THEMIS/Dialogue), formerly known as EU Pilot.

In the context of this dialogue, on 22 July 2025 the Commission sent a letter to the French authorities setting out its concerns as regards the third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code in the light of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on succession matters, in particular about the fact that the explanations provided by the French authorities in their letter of 12 February 2024 were not consistent with the wording of the third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code and that, as a result, the wording of that provision created legal uncertainty for citizens and legal practitioners. The Commission thus asked the French authorities to adopt measures to remove the legal uncertainty created by the wording of the third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code, and proposed alternative measures to that effect.

The French authorities responded to the Commission’s letter on 13 October 2025. In their letter, the French authorities addressed the Commission’s concerns by explaining the French legislature’s aims in adopting the third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code as well as the intended application of that provision. 

On 4 December 2025, the Commission sent a letter to the French authorities noting that, in their response of 13 October 2025, the French authorities had not indicated which of the alternative measures proposed by the Commission they intended to take to remove the legal uncertainty created by the wording of the third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code. In the interest of time, in its letter the Commission proposed to the French authorities that, as a measure to remove that legal uncertainty, the Commission publish the relevant explanations provided by the French authorities in their letter of 13 October 2025. By letter of 21 January 2026, the French authorities provided their formal consent to the publication by the Commission of the relevant explanations.

In accordance with the consent provided by the French authorities by letter of 21 January 2026, the Commission is communicating hereafter the explanations provided by the French authorities in their letter of 13 October 2025 as regards the aim and the intended application of the third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code (original explanations in French):

• “Article 35 of the Succession Regulation provides for the possibility of setting aside the foreign law if it is “manifestly incompatible with the law of the forum” (...). Even if the terms “international public policy” are not used in the third paragraph of Article 913 of the Civil Code, the legislature’s objective is indeed that courts consider reserve mechanisms to be a rule of international public policy in order to allow the application of Article 35 of the Succession Regulation. (...) However, the mechanism of the hereditary reserve [reserved share] as provided for in French law is intended to apply only if the foreign law normally applicable to the settlement of the succession “does not allow any reserve mechanism protective of children”.
• “In order to limit the application of the third paragraph of Article 913 to that situation alone, the French legislature thus chose not to use the expression “hereditary reserve” but to refer more broadly to the “reserve mechanism protective of children”. Thus, the French legislature intended precisely to target mechanisms different from the French hereditary reserve such as the Family Provisions of Anglo-Saxon law, and to limit the right to compensation to cases where the foreign law does not allow any mechanism for the protection of children.”
• “(...) [T]he Family Provisions provided for in Anglo-Saxon law are a “functional equivalent” of the hereditary reserve. Thus, if English law is applicable to the settlement of the succession, the court should not apply the right to compensation as there is in English law a “reserve mechanism protective of children”, namely the Family Provisions.”
• “In conclusion, the objective of the third paragraph of Article 913 of the Civil Code is to enable Article 35 of the Succession Regulation to be implemented. Moreover, the wording of that provision excludes the right to compensation in the presence of an alternative reserve mechanism protective of children (…), and does not have the effect of imposing the hereditary reserve mechanism provided for by French law.”
• “(...) [O]ligation on the [French] notary to provide information about the right to compensation: (...) Where a French notary is asked to settle a succession, he is required to inform the heirs of their rights (Article 921 of the Civil Code).” 

On request by the Commission, by letter of 7 May 2026 the French authorities informed the Commission that they would publish the above explanations in the public [monthly] letter of the Direction des affaires civiles et du sceau (Directorate of Civil Affairs and the Seal), which is transmitted to notaries and other regulated professions, and that they would inform the Commission upon the publication of this letter.

For its part, the Commission will publish the above explanations in the section concerning succession in France of the European e-Justice Portal. 

Following the Commission’s intervention with the authorities of France, in view of the explanations provided by the French authorities as reported above and of the French authorities’ commitment to making those explanations public, the Commission considers that the legal uncertainty created by the wording of the third paragraph of Article 913 of the French Civil Code in the light of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on succession matters has been resolved.

The Commission therefore intends to close this case. Should complainants have new information that might be relevant for the re-assessment of the case, they should provide it to the Commission within four weeks of the publication of this notice. After this date, the case might be closed. The Commission will inform complainants through this website of the closure of the case.

Any information on this case received from complainants after the expiry of the above deadline and after the complainants have been informed through this website of the closure of the case, and which does not change the Commission’s decision to close the case, will not be answered.

[1] See https://commission.europa.eu/about/contact/problems-and-complaints/complaints-about-breaches-eu-law-member-states/multiple-complaints_en. Following the publication of the acknowledgment of receipt, the Commission published, on the same website, information notices on 29 February 2024, 18 December 2024 and 1 August 2025 to inform complainants about developments in the case.