European Property Rights and Wrongs - Diana Wallis MEP

egions. For example in Spain, communities can legislate on this issue depending
on their degree of independence. It is also the case in Belgium because rules can
vary between regions on registration law and inheritance law.
Council Regulation number 44/2001, known as Brussels I 44 , is the instrument that
governs the attribution of international competences between Member States of
the European Union, and the conditions and methods of recognition and enforcement
of judgements given in Member States as well as relating to deeds to ownership.
In most Member States this convention replaces the 1968 Brussels convention.
Another difficulty relating to this issue relates to the professionals involved, their
competences and their powers, because these can vary between Member States.
In Belgium the notary is the main figure who authenticates property contracts,
in France it would be a lawyer and other states differ again and the roles and
expectations of professionals can vary considerably.
Now for consumers, the main issue here relates to access to information. This
is the main obstacle, particularly if we add the issue of languages, a point also
noted by ELRA. You can imagine this can be very tough, and there is the status
of estate agents and the various professionals involved, which can change from
country to country.
I can give two practical examples from my files. The first case relates to an Italian
company which decided to rent a building in Nivelles, the town I come from,
which is near Brussels. They rented it from a Belgian company which owns the
building. Now the Italian company’s business did not go well, so they decided to
leave the Belgian property, and they literally abandoned it, leaving the owner with
a pretty heavy bill. The Brussels I Regulation meant that the dispute was taken to
the Nivelles Justice of the Peace, as the building is located in Nivelle. The decision
was reached, and the decision needed to be enforced in Italy. Now it has been
my experience that the Belgian legal system can be slow, but sometimes you find
that other systems are even slower. Nevertheless, it took me a year to get the
Court of Appeal of Florence to say that the Belgian decree was valid. All that was
44 Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement
of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
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