What's in a name? Reflections on EJC 8 June 2017, C-541/15, Mircea Florian Freitag.

Here we are again with familiar topics. Mircea Florian, a man having Romanian nationality, was born on 25 April 1986 in Romania, under the surname "Pavel". His mother married (second marriage) a German national, Mr Freitag. As a consequence, Mircea Florian became a man with dual nationality, Romanian and German and his surname changed to "Freitag" instead of "Pavel", his original surname. Years after, Mircea Florian, habitually resident in Germany, went back to Romania just to change his surname and recapture his original surname, i.e. "Pavel". Here is where the real problems started for him.

Having said that, one must recognize that the ECJ stressed again what everybody knows: (i) the rules governing the way in which a person’s surname is entered on certificates of civil status are matters coming within the competence of the Member States; (ii) national legislation which places certain of the nationals of the Member State concerned at a disadvantage simply because they have exercised their freedom to move and to reside in another Member State is a restriction on the freedoms conferred by Article 21(1) TFEU on every citizen of the Union; (iii) The surname legally acquired in a specific Member State must be recognized in other Member States.

It is for the domestic legal system of each Member State to determine the detailed rules laid down by national law and intended to safeguard the rights which individuals derive from EU law, provided, first, that those rules are not less favourable than those governing rights which originate in domestic law (principle of equivalence) and, second, that they do not render impossible or excessively difficult in practice the exercise of rights conferred by the EU legal order (principle of effectiveness).

Nevertheless, the most interesting thing is what the ECJ DID NOT DECLARED. This is to say that the ECJ never raised a question on the competence / jurisdiction of the Romanian authorities in order to change the Mircea Florian's surname. Thus, no evasion of the Law is possible and no abuse of law is feasible when a person with habitual residence in a Member State (Germany) goes back to his country of origin (Romania) in order to obtain a new surname. Mircea Florian just exercised his freedom of movement in the UE. Which reminds us the reasoning in Centros (ECJ 9 March 1999). And of Torresi [ECJ 17 July 2014].

Freedom is the most beautiful word in the Universe ever............