Prism Investments BV v Jaap Anne van der Meer.
Date: 2011-10-13
27. In order to answer the question referred for preliminary ruling, it should be noted, as a prelimina ry point, that, as stated in recitals 16 and 17 in the preamble to Regulation No 44/2001, the rules on recognition and enforcement laid down by that regulation are based on mutual trust in the administration of justice in the European Union. Such trust requires that judicial decisions delivered in one Member State are not only recognised automatically in another Member State, but also that the procedure for making those decisions enforceable in that Member State is efficient and rapid.
28. Such a procedure, according to the terms of recital 17 in the preamble to Regulation No 44/2001, may involve only a purely formal check of the documents required for enforceability in the Member State in which enforcement is sought.
29. To that end, in accordance with Article 53 of Regulation No 44/2001, a party applying for a declaration of enforceability is required to produce a copy of the judgment which satisfies the conditions necessary to establish its authenticity, as well as a certificate issued by the authorities of the Member State of origin. Under Article 40(3) of that regulation, those documents must be attached to the application by that party.
30. Furthermore, as stated in Article 41 of that regulation, the authorities of the Member State in which enforcement is sought must, at the beginning of the procedure, not do any more than ensure completion of those formalities with a view to issuing a declaration of enforceability for that judgment. Consequently, in that procedure, those authorities may not carry out any assessment of the elements of fact and law of the case decided by the judgment enforcement of which is sought.
31. The limited nature of that review is justified by the purpose of that procedure, which is not to initiate new proceedings, but rather to agree, on the basis of mutual trust in the administration of justice in the Member States, to the judgment delivered by a court or tribunal of a Member State other than the Member State in which enforcement is sought being enforced by means of incorporation into the latter Member State’s legal order. That procedure thereby enables a judgment delivered in a Member State other than the Member State in which enforcement is sought to have the effect in the latter Member State of a national enforceable judicial decision.
32. In accordance with Article 43 of Regulation No 44/2001, the declaration of enforceability of a judgment delivered in a Member State other than the Member State in which enforcement is sought may be the subject of dispute. The grounds for dispute that may be relied upon are expressly set out in Articles 34 and 35 of Regulation No 44/2001, to which Article 45 thereof refers.
33. That list, the items of which must, in accordance with settled case-law, be interpreted restrictively (see Case C‑420/07 Apostolides  [2009] ECR I‑3571, paragraph 55), is exhaustive in nature.
38. By contrast, the fact that the judgment is unenforceable in the Member State of origin prevents enforcement in the Member State in which enforcement is sought. According to the Court’s case-law, the enforceability of the judgment in question in the Member State of origin is a precondition for its enforcement in the Member State in which enforcement is sought (see Case C‑267/97 Coursier  [1999] ECR I‑2543, paragraph 23). In that regard, although recognition must have the effect, in principle, of conferring on judgments the authority and effectiveness accorded to them in the Member State in which they were delivered (see Case 145/86 Hoffmann  [1988] ECR 645, paragraphs 10 and 11), there is, however, no reason for granting to a judgment, when it is enforced, rights which it does not have in the Member State of origin or effects that a similar judgment given directly in the Member State in which enforcement is sought would not have (see Apostolides , paragraph 66).
39. However, as the Advocate General has noted in point 18 of her Opinion, compliance with a judicial decision does not in any way deprive that decision of its enforceable nature, or lead to its being given, at the time of its enforcement in another Member State, legal effects that it would not have in the Member State of origin. Recognition of the effects of such a judgment in the Member State in which enforcement is sought, which is precisely the subject of the enforcement procedure, concerns the specific characteristics of the judgment in question, without reference to the elements of fact and law in respect of compliance with the obligations arising from it.
40. Such a ground may, by contrast, be brought before the court or tribunal responsible for enforcement in the Member State in which enforcement is sought. In accordance with settled case-law, once that judgment is incorporated into the legal order of the Member State in which enforcement is sought, national legislation of that Member State relating to enforcement applies in the same way as to judgments delivered by national courts (see Case 148/84 Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank  [1985] ECR 1981, paragraph 18; Case 119/84 Capelloni and Aquilini  [1985] ECR 3147, paragraph 16; and Hoffmann , paragraph 27).