The European Union has put forth a “green paper” discussing the problems international couples face when they try to determine which nation’s domestic relations laws apply. Here’s the release about the green paper on the EU web site. And here’s a story from EUObserver.com.
The stated goal is not to harmonize the divorce laws of all the member nations but to clarify questions about which nation will have jurisdiction and which nation’s substantive law will apply. The EU already has jurisdictional rules about divorce, but normalizing rules about substantive law would be a new step.
As an aside, here’s a story about the release in the Times of Malta, based in the only EU country that does not permit divorce at all.
As I have said before, the EU has enough gravitas that more and more of its principles will become de facto world principles. Consequently, expect whatever the EU does on conflict of laws in divorce to become (eventually) the world standard for conflict of laws in divorce.