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Enforcing judgments: the transparency of debtors' assets
Enforcing judgments: the transparency of debtors' assets
Enforcing judgments: the transparency of debtors' assets
This summary has been archived and will not be updated, because the summarised document is no longer in force or does not reflect the current situation.
Enforcing judgments: the transparency of debtors' assets
Even with a court judgment obtained, recovering cross-border debts may be difficult for creditors in practice if no information on the debtors' assets or whereabouts is available. Because of this, the European Commission has adopted a Green Paper launching a public consultation on how to improve the recovery of debts through possible measures such as registers and debtor declarations.
ACT
Green Paper of 6 March 2008 on the effective enforcement of judgments in the European Union: the transparency of debtors' assets [COM(2008) 128 final - Not published in the Official Journal].
SUMMARY
The late and non-payment of debts is detrimental to business and customers alike, particularly when no information is available on the debtor's assets or whereabouts. This is a particular cross-border issue in debt recovery and has the potential to affect the smooth running of the internal market. In launching a public consultation, the European Commission has outlined the problems of the current situation and possible solutions in this Green Paper. Interested parties can submit their comments by 30 September 2008.
State of play
The search for a debtor's address and information on his financial situation is often the starting point for enforcement proceedings. At national level, most Member States mainly use two different systems for obtaining information, either:
In this Green Paper, the European Commission focuses more on a series of measures instead of one single European measure to allow the creditor to obtain reliable information on the debtor's assets and whereabouts within a reasonable period of time. Possible measures include:
Further information is available on the following European Commission websites:
Last updated: 23.05.2008