Brussels, 22/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - A national court is not obliged to pay the expenses of a witness examined at its request by a court of another member state, ruled the European Court of Justice on 17 February 2011 in Case C-283/09.
It was answering a question raised by a Warsaw court in Poland whether, under EU Regulation 1206/2001 (on cooperation among EU courts to obtain evidence for civil and commercial cases), the requesting court of another member state (Ireland, in this particular case) could require the requested court of another country (Poland) to provide money to reimburse the travel expenses of a witness or whether the travel expenses should be paid by the requested court. Under Irish law, a witness does not have to turn up in court unless they have received, in advance, money to cover travel costs (known as a “viaticum”).
The Court of Justice explains that Regulation 1206/2001 explains in detail what can justify refusal to turn up in court, which is supposed to be limited to exceptional circumstances. This list does not include receiving payment in advance for a witness' travel costs and therefore the Polish court is not required to pay the travel costs.
Moreover, Regulation 1206/2001 says that the execution of a request to give evidence is not to give rise to a claim for any reimbursement of taxes or costs. In this connection, the Court of Justice explains that “taxes” should be understood as meaning sums received by the court for carrying out its functions, whereas “costs” are to be understood as the sums paid by the court to third parties in the course of proceedings, in particular to experts or witnesses and expenses paid to a witness examined by the requested court are costs.
The Court of Justice adds that the aim of the regulation “is to make the taking of evidence in a cross-border context simple, effective and rapid. Consequently, the taking, by a court of one member state, of evidence in another member state must not lead to the lengthening of national proceedings.” (F.G./transl.fl)