The aim of the Guidelines is to assist professionals, including notaries, lawyers, legal practitioners and other public authorities involved in family and succession matters, when they have to apply EU rules and instruments to non-judicial proceedings. This may include situations in which decisions or authentic instruments are to be issued, or private acts and agreements have to be certified.
The Guidelines will also provide easily accessible information, raise awareness, deliver best practices, and facilitate judicial cooperation where non-judicial bodies are competent in family and succession matters. Guidelines should be used to further strengthen mutual trust among Member States. They could potentially even be used in third countries, as EU instruments sometimes serve as models for the reformation and regulation of private international law, e.g. in the Western Balkans and Switzerland.