Debtors moving to other EU states could have their earnings raided by creditors, while organisations throughout the EU could share information on individuals with bad credit ratings, Lord Bach has envisaged.
In a speech to the Law Society conference for the European Day of Civil Justice last week, “Dispute Resolution: practical assistance on navigating the cross-border civil justice landscape”, justice minister Lord Bach set out his vision of future cross-border credit enforcement laws.
It was now easier for creditors to obtain an enforceable court decision, but nothing had yet been done to help them in the enforcement process itself, he said.
The fact creditors had to use national procedures to enforce judgments, and did not know how long it would take or how much it would cost, created a barrier to the internal market. Language provided another hurdle, making it less attractive for a creditor to try to enforce lower value claims.
A Eurobarometer survey in April 2008 found that 82% of people thought it fairly, or very, important for the EU to intervene in the enforcement of civil court rulings involving payments in other member
