Hague apostille exemption and other formalities regarding public

documents used by the EU member states

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Anda Soricianu

Starting with 16.02.2019, article 27 para (2) from the EU Regulation no. 2016/1191 on promoting the
free movement of citizens by simplifying the requirements for presenting certain public documents in
the European Union, will be applicable.

Purpose – removing bureaucratic formalities regarding some public documents, such as: apostile
process, authorized translations, certified copies.

Area of applicability – the EU regulation is applicable to the documents issued by the public
authorities of an EU member state, such as: birth certificates, life certificates, death certificates,
marriage certificates, decisions regarding name change, divorce certificates, bachelor certificates,
adoption decisions, domicile certificates, certificates of citizenship, police records, certified copies of
the above documents.

Benefits – the aforementioned documents benefit of the following leverages:

 exemption from the apostilled process;

 acceptance of certified copy instead of original copy;
 exemption from translations, under certain conditions;
 recognition of authorized translations under certain conditions within the EU.

Restrictions:

 no EU country may be compelled to issue public documents contrary to national law;

 The EU Regulation has no effect on the recognition of content and legal effects of the acts in
question (simplifies only formal conditions, and does not give legal documents a legal value that they
do not have, or which is not recognized);
 The EU Regulation does not apply to public documents issued by third States or their legalized
copies;
 The EU Regulation does not apply to documents issued by private institutions.

Important:

 The Regulation does not affect bilateral and multilateral treaties which provide additional facilities in
the area of legalization and apostille exemption;
 The EU Regulation does not replace or restrict the use of acts which, in addition to being exempt
from these formalities, hold a superior legal power;
 The EU Regulation does not prevent the request of an apostille, even for the documents to which it
applies.

Concluding comments:

 important reduction in bureaucracy process;

 these changes are subject to some tax exemption.

Source: EU Regulation no. 2016/1191 from 6th of July 2016, on promoting the free movement of
citizens by simplifying the requirements for presenting certain public documents in the European
Union and amending Regulation (EU) no. 1024 / 2012.