Brussels, 2014-05-13

The draft law on the European account preservation order (EAPO), which we reported on back in February, has now been officially adopted.

The regulation will be directly implemented within the member states, excluding Great Britain and Denmark due to their cancelation clause in such cases. In the future attaining an EAPO will help companies to collect their cross-border claims. Finally they are able to block the sum the debtor owes on the account.

„Every Euro counts “, thinks EU-Commissioner Johannes Hahn, while Vice-president Redings election-based break, “ Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) are the backbone of Europe’s economy who make up 99% of the business connections in the EU. Approximately one million of them are having trouble with cross-border debt collection. In economically challenging times businesses need quick solutions to collect outstanding claims. That is exactly what the new draft law on the European account preservation order is about. Today´s acceptance of the draft law is good news for Europe´s SME and the economy. Thanks to the regulations small businesses will no longer be forced to pursuit expensive and confusing law cases in foreign countries.”

In June 2014 the law will be officially published within the Official Journal of the EU and will afterwards be directly applied in the member states.

Further information here