Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2009:263
Date: 2009-04-23
Language of the case: Dutch
Court formation: First Chamber
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Area of freedom, security and justice;Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Concepts: Jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judgments – Civil and commercial matters
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

summary, simple and rapid enforcement procedure, whilst at the same time giving the party against whom enforcement is sought an opportunity to bring an appeal (see, to that effect, Case C-414/92 Solo Kleinmotoren [1994] ECR I-2237, paragraph 20, and Case C-260/97 Unibank [1999] ECR I‑3715, paragraph 14). 27 That procedure constitutes an autonomous and complete system, independent of the legal systems of the Contracting States, including the matter of appeals (see Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank, paragraphs 16 and 17). The rules relating to it must be interpreted strictly (see SISRO, paragraphs 35 and 39). It follows that Article 36 of the Brussels Convention excludes procedures whereby interested third parties may challenge an enforcement order under domestic law (see Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank, paragraph 17, and Case C‑172/91 Sonntag [1993] ECR I-1963, paragraph 33). 28 The scope of the right conferred by Article 1166 of the Belgian Civil Code on the applicants, which at the hearing the Belgian Government stated could not be placed on the same footing as the debtor, is therefore irrelevant. 29 Lastly, the Court has pointed out that, since the Brussels Convention merely regulates the procedure for obtaining an order for the enforcement of foreign enforceable instruments and does not deal with execution itself, which continues to be governed by the domestic law of the court in which execution is sought (see Case 145/86 Hoffmann [1988] ECR 645, paragraph 27), interested third parties may contest execution by means of the procedures available to them under the law of the State in which execution is levied (see Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank, paragraph 18). 30 Those observations are equally applicable to Regulation No 44/2001. They are borne out by recital 18 in the preamble to that regulation, which refers to the redress procedures available against a declaration of enforceability. According to that recital, such a possibility is expressly made available only to the applicant and the defendant. 31 It follows from all of the foregoing that Article 43(1) of Regulation No 44/2001 must be interpreted as meaning that a creditor of a debtor cannot lodge an appeal against a decision on a request for a declaration of enforceability if he has not formally appeared as a party in the proceedings in which another creditor of that debtor applied for that declaration of enforceability. Costs 32 Since these proceedings are, for the parties to the main proceedings, a step in the action pending before the national court, the decision on costs is a matter for that court. Costs incurred in submitting observations to the Court, other than the costs of those parties, are not recoverable. On those grounds, the Court (First Chamber) hereby rules: Article 43(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters must be interpreted as meaning that a creditor of a debtor cannot lodge an appeal against a decision on a request for a declaration of enforceability if he has not formally appeared as a party in the proceedings in which another creditor of that debtor applied for that declaration of enforceability. [Signatures] * Language of the case: Dutch.