When to issue an ECS? [European Regulation in matters of international successions]

When to issue an ECS?

To determine whether an ECS^[1]may be issued, we need to focus on its purpose. The purpose of the ECS^[1] is its use in another Member State bound by the Regulation to invoke a status or exercise a right or a power. Issue is therefore not useful for successions that concern a single Member State bound by the Regulation in which the ordinary internal produces are sufficient (Article 63^[2]).

The ECS^[1] is a means of evidence of the following in another Member State bound by the Regulation:

Status as heir or legatee, along with the corresponding quantity of their rights,
The attribution of specific assets,
The powers of the person mentioned in the Certificate to execute the will or administer the estate.

The issuing authority must always check the reality of this purpose before issuing the ECS.

Notes

ECS: European Certificate of Succession
Article 63
Purpose of the Certificate
1. The Certificate is for use by heirs, legatees having direct rights in the succession and executors of wills or administrators of the estate who, in another Member State, need to invoke their status or to exercise respectively their rights as heirs or legatees and/or their powers as executors of wills or administrators of the estate.
2. The Certificate may be used, in particular, to demonstrate one or more of the following:
  - a) the status and/or the rights of each heir or, as the case may be, each legatee mentioned in the Certificate and their respective shares of the estate;
  - b) the attribution of a specific asset or specific assets forming part of the estate to the heir(s) or, as the case may be, the legatee(s) mentioned in the Certificate;
  - c) the powers of the person mentioned in the Certificate to execute the will or administer the estate.