•  Spouses shall, each according to his or her ability, contribute to the maintenance needed to meet their joint and personal needs. Provisions on maintenance for children are set out in the Children and Parents Code.

•  If the contribution which one spouse is to make is not sufficient for that spouse's personal needs or for the payments which that spouse otherwise attends to for the maintenance of the family, the other spouse shall contribute the money that is needed.

The intent is to ensure one spouse (usually the woman) does not suffer financial hardship as a result of a divorce.

EUobserver

Under the proposal, currently blocked by Sweden - which would prefer to keep its own liberal national law - the couples would be able to choose which country's law to apply for their divorce proceedings.

If they cannot agree, their joint connection to a country - notably related to the time of residence - determines which country's courts would deal with the divorce case.

What's misleading is that Sweden would not be obliged to change its "liberal national law": just to enter into an agreement in which Swedish nationals might find themselves obliged to accept that their divorce take place under the rules of another member state (that of the other spouse), in cases where the spouses failed to agree that it should be Swedish law that would apply.

This is more the "protect your own nationals" reflex, it seems to me, than any wish to avoid a "race to the bottom".