The Government has until the end of September to come up with proposals for amending Irish divorce law to allow easier access to divorce for other EU citizens, The Irish Times has learned.
This could allow for some divorces in Ireland without the four years' separation which the public voted for in the divorce referendum in 1995.
A Green Paper by the European Commission, which has been laid before the Oireachtas, seeks the views of member states on measures to bring greater harmony to divorce law across the EU.
The discussion document follows five years' operation of a little-known EU regulation known as "Brussels II", which arose from the Amsterdam Treaty, and was aimed at providing a framework for dealing with international divorce in the EU.
Changes to Irish divorce law could include allowing other EU citizens, including those married to Irish citizens, to opt to seek a divorce in Ireland under the laws of their own state. For example a French man married to an Irish woman could go into a court in Dublin, seeking a divorce under French law.
Legal sources say if this happens, it could give rise to claims of discrimination by Irish couples seeking faster divorces.
There are no EU provisions for divorce law across the community. However, since 1998 there has been a demand for a "common judicial area" which would make life simpler for citizens who moved around the EU.
The increasing mobility of EU citizens has resulted in the growth of international marriages, and therefore an increase in the number of divorces involving the citizens of different states.
In Germany, for example, about 15 per cent of divorces concern couples of different nationalities.
The "Brussels II" regulation allows couples to choose between different jurisdictions, some of which have different grounds for granting divorce.
The basis on which a jurisdiction can be sought includes the habitual residence and the domicile (permanent home) of either member of the couple. Once a court in one jurisdiction receives a divorce application, then no other court in any other jurisdiction can deal with it. This has led to the danger of "forum shopping", where one party can seek a jurisdiction which suits his or her particular interests.
Problems have also arisen with conflicts between the rules of different states relating to divorce.
Some permit divorces in their courts according to the laws of the country of origin of those seeking the divorce. Others, including Ireland, do not.
The commission has identified various other anomalies and difficulties with the current situation. These include lack of legal certainty and predictability for the spouses and their inability to divorce under the same laws they married under. The commission has posed 20 questions to member states.
It suggests harmonising ways of dealing with conflicts between the different rules for accepting divorce applications. This would allow people to apply for a divorce under a regime they had a connection with, based on common nationality, the couple's last habitual residence or a similar criterion.
Another possibility would be to allow the spouses to choose the divorce law they wished to apply under. Such freedom of choice would be limited, again based on an obvious connection to the other jurisdiction.
The commission also suggests modifying the rule under which the first court applied to must hear the case, to allow the other spouse to have the case transferred if serious grounds existed for such a transfer.
Geoffrey Shannon, the Irish expert dealing with Brussels II at EU level, said the Green Paper was seeking greater security for spouses and greater flexibility. It raised issues about the harmonisation of family law across Europe, he said, and the need for a common definition of marriage.
"There was no discussion of the substance of Brussels II by the Oireachtas," he said. "Now we have this. There is a need for a public debate on it. It is a matter of democratic accountability."