This issue is of great importance to many couples, who have been living together for decades. The aim of the ELI Project in this regard is to ensure more security and legal certainty when specific situations take place, for instance when one of the partners has cared for the children while the other has pursued a career and accumulated a fortune, and then the relationship breaks down.

The topic is particularly difficult, because there is such a broad range of different national solutions. The Working Group will therefore prepare the questionnaire to be sent out to the national correspondents concerning informal (cohabiting) couples. The Group hopes to get the relevant data enabling further research and development of a set of model cohabitation agreements, which would be enforceable in as many Member States as possible.

You can find more information about this ELI Project here.