1.

Must recital 15 of Council Regulation (EC) No 4/2009 (2) of 18 December 2008 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and cooperation in matters relating to maintenance obligations, be interpreted as

allowing national case-law according to which the international jurisdiction of courts examining applications for maintenance payments for persons who are habitually resident in a third State (in this case Canada) is determined pursuant to national law and not the regulation?

2.

Must Articles 3 and 8 of Regulation (EC) No 4/2009 be interpreted as

allowing national case-law according to which the concept ‘application for maintenance payments’ does not cover an application for a reduction in maintenance payments and Articles 3 to 6 of the regulation apply only to applications for the granting of maintenance payments?

3.

Must Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 4/2009 be interpreted as meaning that the concept ‘common nationality’ also covers cases where one or more parties have dual nationality, or does it only cover cases of completely identical nationalities?

4.

Must Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 4/2009 be interpreted as

allowing, where the maintenance debtor makes an application for a reduction in the maintenance payments, that application to be regarded as an ‘exceptional’ case where the maintenance creditor is habitually resident in a third State and has no other connection with the European Union other than his or her nationality?