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access to child
As a father im wanting to know what my rights are,Im british my former partner is American,she is currently living with her parents in brussels,our child will be born in belguim ,brussels,as the father what are my rights within european law about seeing my child,can she deny me from seeing the child
Until your child is actually born and she denies you access, there isn't anything you can do, as it's all entirely hypothetical.
You do have rights, however if things are that bad that you can't come to an agreement with the child's mother, then your only course of action is to use the courts. It will be a very long, very expensive and very painful process.
My advice to you is to somehow find a way to make it up between the two of you and come to an agreement between the two of you about this.
Involving the courts will be a disaster for you, the mother and your child.
To add to the first response I would ask whether you have any reason, at this stage, to think that the mother will deny you access? Unless you seriously believe that there will be a problem, suggesting to her that you have been checking out your legal rights is extremely inadvisable.
Soon after the child is born the birth has to be registered and the mother has to name you as the father and you have to start paying maintenance.
If she refuses to name you, you have got major problems which can only be resolved by a legal process.
If you do not pay maintenance regularly and on time, it will count against you should the matter end up in a court hearing.
The reality is that if a mother does not want you seeing the child, you will not see the child.
Just as a clarification to what KASSEISTAMPER notes above.
The birth of the child does have to be registered within 15 days, however the mother has no obligation to name you as the father unless
1) she is married to you, or
2) she wants to.
For example, if she is married to someone else, her husband is automatically named as the father, unless the mother says otherwise.
If the mother and father are unmarried, she can agree that you are the father and you are recognized as such, or she can disagree, and you will have to prove it. A "Reconnaissance d'un enfant" process has to be done.
http://www.belgium.be/fr/famille/enfants/naissance/reconnaissance/
In the worse case scenario, if you insist you are the father, but the mother refuses to recognise that fact, then the courts will order a DNA test to prove paternity.
Again, as I mentioned in my first post, if you end up in the courts, it will be a disaster at every step. It would be far better, as difficult as it may be, to try somehow to come to some sort of agreement with the mother.
