Republic of Moldova seeks membership to the Hague Conference
Today, during the Council on General Affairs and Policy, the Secretary General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law received the official proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to admit the Republic of Moldova as a new Member of the Organisation. The Secretary General then formally opened the six month period for existing Members to vote on the proposal. The proposal of the Netherlands was in response to a request submitted by the Republic of Moldova earlier last week.
Under the Hague Conference Statute, existing Members have six months to submit their vote on the proposal, in this case until 25 September 2015. Once the voting period ends and the proposal to admit the Republic of Moldova is affirmed by the majority of the votes cast, it may then deposit its instrument of acceptance of the Statute. A State is formally considered a Member of the Hague Conference as of the date that it deposits this instrument.
The Republic of Moldova is presently a Contracting State to eight Hague Conventions, which include: the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, the Convention of 25 October on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.
Photo: His Excellency Mr Emilian Brenici, Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to the Netherlands, delivers remarks following the Secretary General's announcement.
(From left to right: His Excellency Ambassador Brenici, with Mr Joseph Damoiseaux, Head of the Treaties Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Mr Mark Groen, Legal Officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Secretary General Christophe Bernasconi, and Mr Antti Leinonen, Chair of the Council on General Affairs and Policy)