Summary

In the event that a debtor may free himself or herself of his or her assets and thus jeopardise the possibility of later fulfilment of a claim, creditors can, under certain conditions, request temporary protection of their claim both in Estonia and other Member States of the European Union. One such temporary protection measure is to seize the bank accounts of the debtor, in Estonian law known as a measure for securing an action.

The rules that have applied so far did not promote effective cross-border application and performance of these protective measures. A creditor was forced to deal with different legal systems and requirements, as well as obstacles arising from the language barrier. In order to improve the situation, Regulation No. 655/2014 was adopted in the European Union on 15 May 2014, establishing a European Account Preservation Order procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters. The Regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 June 2014, and will be applied starting from 18 January 2017. This article presents an overview of the objectives, scope, and the main rules of this regulation.