Luxembourg, 08/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice has indicated that it has given its recommendation on the competency of the European Community, which it says is exclusive and not shared between Member States, in the conclusion of the new Lugano Convention on the execution of civil and trade judgements. This convention will be passed in all Member States of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. It will replace the first Lugano Convention of 16 September 1988 (which Liechtenstein, an EFTA member, did not ratify).
The Council, which requested a recommendation from the Court, took into account the fact that on 22 December 2000 it had itself adopted Regulation EC 44/2001 on the question of legal competencies and recognition of the execution of civil and trade decisions. This regulation in all EU Member States except Denmark, replaces the Brussels Convention of 17 September 1968 on the same subject.
The Court considers that the 2001 Regulation puts in place a “comprehensive and coherent system” on the recognition of legal decisions made by the courts of the countries of the EU. The new Lugano Convention is likely to affect this system, it says, given that it increases the number of cases in which legal decisions made by courts in non-Member States of the European Community will be recognised in the EU. It concludes that the new Lugano Convention will affect the “uniform and coherent application of Community rules” and, following a lengthy legal deliberation, that the European Community has exclusive competency for concluding this new convention.
The objective of the Lugano Convention (like the 2001 Regulation) is to make sure legal judgements made in a signatory country to this convention are executed in the other countries that have signed the convention, without having to initiate new judicial proceedings.