Provisional account preservation measures in the European Union : a comparison between the Dutch and the Maltese perspective

Abstract

The European Account Preservation Order Regulation is a new weapon for creditors to recover their claim by freezing cross border bank accounts, by using one single court order. It is a provisional measure to prevent that the debtor let disappear his assets on a foreign bank account before the creditor is able to obtain the judgment at the court. Furthermore, the opportunity to request for bank account information could be very useful for the creditor. This work contains the fundamentals of the EAPO Regulation, compared to the alternative of the Brussel Ibis Regulation to recognise and enforce a national garnishee order in another European Union member state. The study aim is to conduct focussed comparative research on the requirements and mode of implementation of the Regulation, which will provide a platform for recommendation for amendments to the Regulation, in order to improve the enforcement of creditors’ rights. After research on the use of the EAPO Regulation in Malta and in the Netherlands, by interviewing stakeholders such as lawyers, courts and bank officials, recommendations are given to improve the use and the practical value of this new, cross border garnishee tool. Despite an alleged leak of awareness among legal professionals, the cross border garnishee order including the advantage to obtain account information of the debtor could be a very useful and much wanted instrument. Due to a limited use since the EAPO Regulation became effective in January 2017, related case law is scarce. However, the limitations that are analysed in this work need improvement in order to prevent that ’the Regulation could well join the club of largely unused EU civil justice measures’