European Preservation Order on Bank Accounts: Cross-Border Debt Recovery Easier for SMEs

As of Wednesday, January 18th 2017, Regulation EU No 655/2014 of 15.05.2014 has, at last, been made applicable. This regulation establishes a European Account Preservation Order procedure that is a uniform procedure in the whole European Union to facilitate crossborder debt recovery in civil and commercial matters (the “Procedure”).

This procedure—conceived with the needs of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in mind, which lose about 600 million Euros every year because of the difficulties associated with debt recovery—should serve as an additional and optional means for the creditor, who remains free to make use of any other procedure for obtaining an equivalent measure under national law.

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