In the beginning of last week the Council of Ministers submitted to parliament a draft law supplementing the Civil Procedure Code, which governs the procedure for issuing The European Account Preservation Order. The bill was prepared in connection to the implementation of Regulation (EU) № 655/2014 establishing a European Account Preservation Order to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial cases, which will apply from January 18, 2017.
A cross-border case is existent when the creditor is domiciled in a Member State and the court and the bank account subject to freezing are located in another Member State or when the court considering the request for a European Account Preservation order is located in one Member State and the bank account – subject to a preservation order is in another Member State.
The competent jurisdiction to issue an European Account Preservation Order is projected to be the first instance court, which should consider the case in substance if the issuance of the above-mentioned order has been requested before bringing the claim /security of future claim/. According to the requirements of the Regulation, it provides a possibility to request the issuance of a European Preservation Order at any stage of the case, including in the cassation.
author: Vesela Velinova, attorney-at-law
Member of “Velinov and partners” Consulting House