Cutting the Bureaucratic Red Tape with Document Submission

On 9 June, 2016, the European Parliament issued a regulation which considerably decreases the bureaucracy connected with submission of documents issued by another EU member state to authorities and/or courts. An EU citizen planning to work or setting up or doing business in another EU country are typical examples of processes burdened with bureaucratic red tape.

Until recently, all documents have had to be apostilled with officially certified translation attached. The lengthy and relatively costly procedure often resulted in unnecessary delays in the businessperson’s business plans caused by the necessity to wait for the completion of the documents.

The regulation, however, order EU member states to automatically recognise certain documents (especially birth and marriage certificates, permanents residence permits or criminal record certificates) as authentic without the need for apostille.

Yet another novelty is the introduction of so-called standard forms issued by the corresponding authority which are to be attached to the respective documents. This multilingual form will be used in other EU member states, which means that costs and time spent on acquisition of the officially certified translation will be eliminated.

The new regulation is especially advantageous when a criminal record certificate is required (e.g. when setting up a business) – having the statement issued by the respective office, often on the while-you-wait basis, and subsequently submitting it the authority requiring it will be sufficient.

Nevertheless, we ought to bear in mind that the EU member states are obliged to implement the new regulation in the course of two and a half years; the question is, then, when it will be possible to make use of these advantages.