EU Law and Practice Contributed by: Nathalie Colin, Maria-Clara Van den Bossche, Kevin Xhebexhia and Florence Frühling, Freshfields LLP
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1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position Identifying another party’s asset position within the EU can be challenging due to the diverse legal systems and privacy regulations. However, there are several methods and tools available to creditors and other interested parties. Registers and Databases Several EU member states have public registers and databases that often prove useful in identifying anoth - er party’s assets. By way of illustration, member states may have the following: • land registers, providing information on ownership of immovable assets and on mortgages; • company registers, providing information on annual accounts, ownership structure, and the identity of directors; • vehicle registers, providing information on vehicle ownership; • insolvency registers, providing information on bankruptcy or other insolvency proceedings debt - ors may be caught up in; • IP registers, providing information on ownership of registered IP rights; and • registers of the member states’ national banks.
European Account Preservation Order (EAPO) Regulation Regulation No 655/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 establishing a European Account Preservation Order procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and com - mercial matters (the “EAPO Regulation”) allows for a creditor who holds an enforceable judgment to formu - late a request to obtain information on the accounts the debtor presumably holds in a member state. Even if the judgment is not yet enforceable, such a request can still be made if the creditor substantiates that there is an urgent need for the account informa - tion because the subsequent enforcement could be in jeopardy. The EAPO Regulation allows a creditor to freeze a debtor’s bank accounts across member states. It can be obtained without the debtor’s prior knowledge, to prevent the transfer or withdrawal of funds. Domestic Particularities For domestic particularities (eg, insolvency proceed - ings, credit reporting agencies, private investigators, and court orders such as asset disclosure orders and freezing orders), please refer to the relevant national chapters of this Global Practice Guide.
2. Domestic Judgments 2.1 Types of Domestic Judgments
In Europe, types of domestic judgments vary by coun - try, but they generally fall into a few broad categories.
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