Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-14-Speech-2-264"
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".
In response to Mrs Schierhuber’s question on improved access to justice for consumers in Europe, I should like to say that, in the field of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, the Council is currently pursuing the projects envisaged by the Hague Programme of 2004 and the Action Plan 2005 implementing this. These include creating new procedures to enable EU citizens to obtain a judicial decision more quickly and more easily in the case of cross-border disputes.
In specific terms, we are concerned here with two regulations in particular: firstly, the Regulation creating a European order for payment procedure and, secondly, the Regulation establishing a European small claims procedure. These being regulations, Parliament is very closely involved in both procedures under the codecision procedure.
Both regulations create new procedural opportunities, which will also, in particular, strengthen consumer protection throughout the EU. If consumers are faced with a legal dispute in connection with their cross-border financial transactions, they should now have recourse to the institutions organising judicial cooperation between the judicial authorities of the individual Member States.
The two new procedures will therefore supplement the instruments that have been adopted up to now in the field of judicial cooperation – the simplified procedure for taking evidence and the minimum standards for legal aid, to name but a few – and thus further augment the legal remedies within the EU.
The Regulation creating a European order for payment procedure will make it possible in future for EU citizens to obtain a European order for payment upon application to a court, in respect of payment notifications that are possibly uncontested by the debtor. If, subsequently, no objection is forthcoming from the debtor, this order for payment becomes final and also enforceable. This will make it easier for the creditor to subsequently assert this order in the Member States.
Further to Parliament’s positive opinion in December 2005, it proved possible to reach political agreement on this regulation as early as 21 February 2006, at the most recent Justice and Home Affairs Council. Once the regulation has been revised by the lawyer-linguists, it should be adopted by the Council at first reading as an ‘A’ item in April 2006. Even so, we envisage that the regulation will enter into force in two years’ time.
The establishment of a European small claims procedure – the second crucial point here – should simplify and accelerate the enforcement of cross-border small claims. The small claims procedure, which is in principle designed to be conducted in writing, is one in which judicial decisions are taken in respect of claims up to a total of EUR 2 000. The desired acceleration is to be achieved by imposing a time frame for even the individual stages of the procedure, which not only the courts, but also the parties to the proceedings will have to observe.
In addition, the court is free to determine the means of proof and the extent to which evidence is taken, according to the individual case. Evidence may also be taken by means of modern communication technology, such as videoconferencing or similar – provided, of course, that this is also admissible in the procedures of the Member State concerned. We intend to actively continue work on the Regulation establishing a European small claims procedure during our Presidency, and indeed hope to be able to bring it a long way towards completion."@en1
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