The agreement, approved by Council of the European Union on 20 December 2010, took effect in the 14 original contracting parties on 21 June 2012[1] and makes use of the enhanced co-operation mechanism which allows a minimum of nine EU member states to establish advanced integration or cooperation in an area within EU structures but without all members being involved.

However Sweden blocked the new rules,[citation needed] fearing their impact on the applicability of its liberal divorce law (divorce law differs strongly, with Nordic liberalism being in contrast to more conservative countries with more complicated procedures such as Malta which has only recently permitted it).

In order to allow those willing states to proceed without Sweden, in July 2008 nine countries put forward a proposal to use enhanced cooperation: Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.

[5][6] On 24 March 2010, when the law was formally proposed by the commission, Bulgaria was the tenth state to join the aforementioned eight and France.

[8][9] MEPs backed the proposal in June 2010[9] with 14 states willing to adopt enter the proposed cooperation: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain.

Lithuania became the first state to request to join the enhanced co-operation on divorce law in June 2012,[14] and their participation was approved by the Commission on 21 November 2012.