Chapter 8 - Conclusions

Summary

‘L'Europe ne se fera pas d'un coup, ni dans une construction d'ensemble: elle se fera par des réalisations concretes créant d'abord une solidarité de fait’, Robert Schumann

Introduction

The present chapter analyses the results of the enactment and application of two of the three current European uniform procedures. The third procedure, the European Account Preservation Order (EAPO), only became applicable on 18 January 2017, and is therefore only incidentally addressed.

As described in Chapter 1, the analysis was carried out in four European jurisdictions: England and Wales (hereafter England), France, Italy, and Romania. The main research question was whether the EOP and the ESCP improved cross-border litigation in terms of securing effective enforcement mechanisms while protecting parties’ procedural rights. In order to answer this, the following sub-questions were addressed in Chapters 3–7:

1) Which national instruments serve a purpose similar to that of the EOP and the ESCP, and how do they function in practice?

2) How are the European uniform procedures implemented within the legal framework of the analysed national systems?

3) How are these European procedures perceived and applied in practice?

4) To what extent do the EOP and the ESCP succeed in providing effective alternative instruments in cross-border litigation?

5) Do the European uniform procedures offer sufficient guarantees for the parties’ procedural rights?

A complementary question is based on the answers to the main question, investigating whether the template established by the European uniform procedures represents a model for future procedures aimed at simplifying cross-border enforcement and harmonising civil procedures.

The analysis considers and refers to the EAPO procedure whenever it is considered to contribute to the discussion generated by the follow-up question.

The chapter first concludes on the findings reported in previous chapters, and then addresses the follow-up question concerning developments and future projects in the area of European civil justice.

Chapters 2–7 discuss and assess the application of the EOP and the ESCP, looking at their implementation and interaction with domestic rules and procedures. Chapter 2 explores the main features of the first two European uniform procedures, focusing on their standards and characteristics, and on their interaction with domestic procedural rules.