EU Law and Practice Contributed by: Nathalie Colin, Florence Frühling and Niels Depaepe, Freshfields
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 information because the subsequent enforcement could be in jeopardy. Furthermore, the EAPO Regulation allows a creditor to freeze a debtor’s bank accounts across member states. It can be obtained without the debt -
or’s prior knowledge to prevent the transfer or with - drawal 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. For the recognition and enforcement of judgments, the following categories are particularly important. • Final judgment – this is the decision on the merits of the case. • Default judgment – conversely to a judgment ren - dered by adversarial hearings, a default judgment is issued if the defendant fails to appear at the hearing in the proceedings. In some jurisdictions, default judgments are deemed to be contradictory in particular circumstances and/or give rise to an additional means of redress known as opposition. • Interim measure judgments (such as injunctions or temporary restraining orders that are intended to preserve the status quo until the final judgment is issued) – these are decisions issued in anticipation of or during the course of ongoing proceedings (including provisional measures), without prejudg - ment of the decision on the merits. EU Particularities At the EU level, there are certain instruments that may be used to obtain orders facilitating enforcement, as follows. • The European Payment Order (Regulation (EU) No 1896/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 creating a European order for payment procedure) grants an enforce - able title. Its primary goal is to facilitate cross- border debt recovery by providing a uniform and efficient method for creditors to enforce claims
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