COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position adopted by the Council at first reading on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (service of documents) and of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC)No 1206/2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters This Communication refers to both COM(2018) 378 final - 2018/0203(COD) and COM(2018) 379 final – 2018/0204(COD)
Date: 2020-11-06
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, European Commission
Subjects: civil law, civil procedure, commercial law, cross-border cooperation, data transmission, electronic document management, electronic government, judicial cooperation in civil matters in the EU, judicial inquiry

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 6.11.2020  COM(2020) 695 final 2018/0203 (COD)  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position adopted by the Council at first reading on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (service of documents) and of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC)No 1206/2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters  This Communication refers to both  COM(2018) 378 final - 2018/0203(COD) and COM(2018) 379 final – 2018/0204(COD)   
 
 
2018/0203 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position adopted by the Council at first reading on the adoption of a Regulation of the 
European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council on the service in the Member States of judicial 
and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (service of documents) and 
of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council 
Regulation (EC)No 1206/2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States 
in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters 

This Communication refers to both  
COM(2018) 378 final - 2018/0203(COD) and COM(2018) 379 final – 2018/0204(COD) 

1.  

BACKGROUND 

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1393/2007  provides  for  fast-track  channels  and  uniform 
procedures  for  transmitting  documents  directly  between  the  designated  competent  agencies 
from  one  Member  State  to  another,  for  purposes  of  service  in  the  latter.  The  Regulation 
includes certain minimum standards on the protection of the rights of defence (e.g. Articles 8 
and  19),  and  sets  uniform  legal  conditions  for  serving  a  document  by  post  directly  across 
borders. 

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1206/2001  on  cooperation  between  the  courts  of  the  Member 
States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters is an important instrument for 
European judicial cooperation, given that it is  often crucial to  present  sufficient evidence to 
the court to prove a claim. The Regulation establishes an EU-wide system for the direct and 
rapid  transmission  of  requests  for  the  taking  and  execution  of  evidence  between  courts  and 
lays down precise rules as to the form and content of such requests. 

The  EU  justice  agenda  for  20201  stressed  that,  in  order  to  enhance  mutual  trust  between 
Member  States’  justice  systems,  the  need  to  reinforce  civil  procedural  rights  should  be 
examined,  for  example  as  regards  the  service  of  documents.  The  aim  of  improving  the 
framework of judicial cooperation within the EU is also in line with the objectives set out by 
the  Commission  in  the  digital  single  market  strategy.2  In  the  context  of  e-government,  the 
strategy  expresses  the  need  for  more  action  to  modernise  public  (including  judicial) 

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2 

COM(2014) 144 final. 
COM(2015) 192 final. 

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administration,  achieve  cross-border  interoperability  and  facilitate  easy  interaction  with 
citizens.  

In 2017 the Commission undertook a regulatory fitness (REFIT) evaluation, in line with the 
better  regulation  guidelines,  to  assess  the  operation  of  the  instruments.  The  findings  of  that 
REFIT  evaluation  showed  that  full  advantage  is  not  being  taken  of  the  potential  of  recent 
technological  developments.  As  regards  the  interoperability  of  the  national  IT  systems,  the 
impact assessment concluded that in this context substantial improvement could be achieved 
with little investment, by relying on the EU outputs and legal standards that already exist. 

Accordingly, the Commission undertook in its work programme for 2018 to prepare proposals 
revising the Regulations. 

Date  of  transmission  of  the  proposals  to  the  European  Parliament 
and to the Council: 

31 May 2018. 

Date  of  the  opinions  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

17 October 2018. 

Date of the positions of the European Parliament, first reading: 

Date of adoption of the positions of the Council:  

13 February 2019. 

4 November 2020. 

2. 

PURPOSE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSALS 

The  proposals  aim  to  improve  the  smooth  functioning  of  the  area  of  freedom,  security  and 
justice, and of the internal market, by increasing the efficiency and speed of the cross-border 
service  of  documents  and  taking  of  evidence.  They  should  achieve  this  by  adapting 
Regulations  (EC)  No  1393/2007  and  (EC)  No  1206/2001  to  technical  developments  and 
exploiting the advantages of digitalisation. The initiatives increase legal certainty and thereby 
help to avoid delays and undue costs for citizens, businesses and public administrations and 
address shortcomings in the protection of parties’ procedural rights. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

Throughout the inter-institutional negotiations the Commission achieved the safeguarding of 
all  the  key  principles  included  in  its  proposals,  in  particular:  the  mandatory  nature  of  the 
electronic transmission of requests as the common main element of both instruments, bringing 

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about the digitalisation of communications; the possibility to serve documents directly on the 
is  made  of 
addressee  electronically;  and  further  rules 
videoconferencing in the context of cross-border taking of evidence. In trilogues appropriate 
solutions  were  found  on  all  technical  issues,  including  the  way  in  which  reference  to  e-
CODEX3  (e-Justice  Communication  via  Online  Data  Exchange)  is  made,  as  well  as  on  two 
political  issues  regarding  the  deadlines  for  implementing  acts.  These  were  resolved  in 
accordance  with  the  Commission´s  objectives  and  mandate.  More  specifically,  the  main 
elements of the Council position are the following: 

that  more  use 

to  ensure 

 

 

 

 

The Commission  adopts the implementing acts  to  establish the technical  system 15 
months after the entry into force of the Regulations.   

Member  States  will  then  have  3  years  to  implement  the  system  following  the 
adoption  of  the  implementing  acts,  with  the  proviso  that  Member  States  which  are 
already sufficiently advanced can start implementation earlier. 

The decentralised IT system will be adopted by implementing acts. 
The texts are transformed into recasts.4 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission supports the Council positions. 

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and secure cross-border electronic exchange of case related data. 

An  information  technology  instrument  at  Union  level  that  allows  swift,  direct,  interoperable,  reliable 

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The  Commission  endorsed  the  transformation  of  the  texts  into  recasts  in  the  interest  of  legal 
practitioners,  as  requested  by  Council  and  Parliament,  and  accepted  exceptionally  to  deviate  from  the 
Interinstitutional  agreement  on  recasts  since    the  legislative  technique  initially  chosen,  namely  having  the  two 
proposals as amending acts, was rather due to the specific circumstances and calendar constraints linked to their 
adoption at the end of the previous Commission’s mandate, and not due to unsuitability of having recast formats;  
and since it was agreed at trilogues that provisions for which the Commission did not propose an amendment and 
that were not subject to the political agreement, remain untouched.  

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