Official Journal of the European Union

C 313/3

(Case C-353/06)

(Right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States - Private international law relating to surnames - Applicable law determined by nationality alone - Minor child born and resident in one Member State with the nationality of another Member State - Non-recognition in the Member State of which he is a national of the surname acquired in the Member State of birth and residence)

(2008/C 313/04)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Other parties: Leonhard Matthias Grunkin-Paul, Standesamt Niebüll,

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Amtsgericht Flensburg (Germany) — Interpretation of Articles 12 and 18 of the EC Treaty — National rule on conflict of laws connecting the law governing the determination of a person's surname to nationality alone — Refusal by the Member State of which he is a national to recognise the surname of a child, made up of the respective surnames of his parents, where the child was born and is resident in another Member State in which he has been registered under that double-barrelled name

Operative part of the judgment

In circumstances such as those of the case in the main proceedings, Article 18 EC precludes the authorities of a Member State, in applying national law, from refusing to recognise a child's surname, as determined and registered in a second Member State in which the child — who, like his parents, has only the nationality of the first Member State — was born and has been resident since birth.

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(<span class="super">1</span>) OJ C 281, 18.11.2006.