PURPOSE: to amend Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 (the so-called Brussels I Regulation) on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Brussels I Regulation (recast)), recasting Regulation (EC) No 44/2001, was adopted. Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 will enter into application on 10 January 2015.
In December 2012, an agreement was reached on the so-called patent package:
Article 89(1) of the UPC Agreement provides that the Agreement cannot enter into force prior to the entry into force of the amendments to the Brussels I Regulation (recast) regulating the relationship between both instruments.
On 15 October 2012, the three Member States (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) who are Contracting Parties to the Treaty of 31 March 1965 concerning the establishment and statute of a Benelux Court of Justice signed a Protocol modifying the said Treaty creating the possibility to extend the competences of the Benelux Court of Justice to include jurisdictional competences in specific matters which come within the scope of the Brussels I Regulation.
As a result, similar to the UPC Agreement, the Protocol to the Benelux Treaty requires an amendment to the Brussels I Regulation (recast) with the aim (i) to ensure compliance between the revised Treaty and the Brussels I Regulation (recast), and (ii) to address the lack of common jurisdiction rules vis-à-vis defendants in non-European Union States.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT: the matter of jurisdictional rules vis-à-vis State defendants was extensively assessed in the Commission's impact assessment accompanying the legislative proposal amending Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters ("Brussels I"). The conclusions of that assessment are a fortiori relevant for the limited harmonisation foreseen in this proposal.
LEGAL BASIS: Article 67(4) and points (a), (c) and (e) of Article 81(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
CONTENT: this proposal aims, firstly, at allowing the entry into force of the UPC Agreement. Article 89(1) of the UPC Agreement makes the entry into force of the Agreement dependent on the amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1215/2012. In addition, the proposal aims at ensuring compliance with the Brussels I Regulation of this Agreement as well as the Protocol to the Benelux Treaty of 1965.
In order to ensure the combined and coherent application of the Agreement and Protocol and the Brussels I Regulation (recast), it is necessary to address the following issues in the Brussels I Regulation (recast):
BUDGETARY IMPLICATION: the proposal has no implications for the European Unions budget.