Brussels, 23/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Commission is to adopt a Green Paper aimed at strengthening the application of decisions in justice relating to the seizure of banking assets, for example by establishing a European bank seizure procedure. Such a procedure would allow a creditor that has obtained an enforceable judgement in one Member State to be fully entitled to carry out a seizure of goods or assets in another Member State. In practice, the funds on the debtor's account would be immediately frozen without, however, any immediate transfer being operated to the benefit of the creditor. The order of seizure issued in one Member State would be recognised and would be applicable directly throughout the Union without having to call on the exequatur provision. If adopted, this procedure should be added to the existing national procedures. “At this stage, the idea of bringing in such a procedure and the relevant details are open to discussion”, a European source said. The decision as to whether or not to bring in a legislative proposal in this field will be the subject of an impact study to be analysed from the point of view of the problems arising from the recovery of cross-border debts, and the possible alternatives to establishing a European instrument. The Commission considers that an obvious alternative to Community action would be to “maintain status quo” and that another would be simply to abolish the exequatur without setting common standards in place via the banking assets seizure procedure. Without wishing to jeopardise the results of the impact study, the Commission has clearly decided to table on the creation of a “self-standing” European procedure that would be available to citizens and businesses in addition to the national procedures for seizure of bank assets. Compared to pure harmonisation, mainly achieved via a directive, the self-standing procedure would have the advantage of not modifying the national systems which, for the most part, differ greatly, the Commission comments. It nonetheless considers that an approach in which European and national procedures are juxtaposed could dissuade rather than encourage individuals or companies to exercise their rights. The European Executive therefore envisages the creation of a European procedure that would not be valid in the State other than that where the order has been issued, as well as for the seizure of banking assets in the same Member State. Whatever instrument is chosen, the Commission's proposal should clarify the procedure aimed at obtaining a seizure order, define the amount, the limits and the effects of the order and evaluate the debtor guarantee procedures (for example, the possibility of challenging the order). All interested parties are invited to submit their comments on the Green Paper by 31 March 2007. A Green Paper on how to enhance transparency of debtor capital will be presented end 2007. (bc)