MEPs asked to help Maltese mother who has been waiting 10 years for alimony
Peter Agius has asked MEPs to help a Maltese mother in her 10-year-long battle to receive maintenance payments from the father of her children.
The woman, whose name Agius withheld to protect her identity, was married and had two children before she and her husband separated in 2009. A Maltese court ordered her husband to pay €1,100 a month in child maintenance.
He eventually moved to France and settled there, but the payments were never made, the woman says.
Despite a 10-year struggle to get Maltese and French authorities to enforce the court decree, she has so far failed.
PN spokesperson and MEP candidate Agius has now stepped in to push MEPs to legislate to ensure such court orders are enforced across EU borders.
"She remains in the dark, without any explanation as to the reasons for the insufferable delay or to the actual state of play on the satisfaction of her due rights," Agius told the MEPs in the petition he filed to the European Parliament Petitions Committee on Monday.
"Europe is first and foremost about citizen's rights. If we fail to give a citizen his or her right then Europe is failing. In many cases, this system is providing solutions. There are however many...