🇨🇿 Czechia

1. The status of digitalisation in enforcement of the judgments under the regulation in

question (a) under EOP Regulation, and (b) under EEO Regulation

The digitalisation level of these two specific proceedings reflects the general state of the digitalisation of proceedings in the Czech Republic and the means of communication available to the parties are therefore the same as for any type of proceedings. As per the Article 29(1)(c) of the EOP Regulation the Czech Republic recognizes 3 types of remote (e)filing, all of which are defined as such in the Section 42 of the Civil Procedure Act. After the e-form has been filled (online or locally after downloading the fillable e-form)46 it can be submitted via an email sent to the address of the relevant court or by utilising a telefax. When submitting the form via an email, the parties have the option to use the relevant level of authorisation by electronic signature, as stipulated in the national law, in the act no. 297/2016 Sb., o službách vytvárejících duveru pro elektronické transakce (The act on trusted services for electronic transactions). However, the Civil Procedure Act also provides an option to file the form via an email without the relevant e-signature. In such case, as well as in the case of the use of telefax for filing, the party is obliged to submit the original form via postal mail within 3 days. Should they fail to do so, the submission is considered to never have been filed in the first place. The subsequent delivery of the order for payment may also be carried out digitally, by utilising the national system of data boxes. If the addressee of the order has the box set up (as of now, data boxes are mandatory only for companies and for entrepreneurs). Similarly, the rules (and the level of the digitalisation of the procedure) is not different from other types of civil proceedings as the order for execution title is seen as an individual proceeding. As such, the execution title may be petitioned by e-filing using once again either ordinary email, subsequently supplemented by filing the paper form or by attaching the relevant e-signature to the email, which will not require the supplemental submission. As it is seen as a stand-alone proceeding in front of the national court, a system of the national data boxes may be also utilised, this form of filing is considered to be authorized and the identity of the claimant to be authoritatively identified. As such it does not require additional supplementation.

Procedural aspects

2. Competent court or authority and procedure involved in the enforcement (a) under EOP

Regulation, and (b) under EEO Regulation

(a) In the case of the rules on the enforcement of EOP, mainly the above stated Section 147b of the Civil Procedure Act is highly relevant. As it directly does not state, how the enforcement itself will be processed, the main rules stated in this Section have to be fulfilled. Enforcement of a judgment after an EPO has been issued is then governed by the general provisions of the Civil Procedure Act, specifically Section 251 et seq. Here it is generally stated that "if the debtor does not voluntarily comply with the enforceable decision, the creditor may file a petition for judicial enforcement of the decision. The court shall order and execute the enforcement of the decision, except for a title that is enforced in administrative or tax proceedings. The filing of a petition with the EPO is generally governed by and filed through the European information portal43, where the individual steps for filing a petition electronically are described (using Section 42 of the Civil Procedure Act - by email with electronic signature, data boxes - Czech national data exchange solution, or by telefax) - however it is worth noting that the information provided no longer corresponds to the current legislation and is outdated on this website. (b) In case of EEO were mainly stated above in regards of the Section 353 of the Civil Procedure Act. This piece of legislation is the only specific regulation of EEO in civil procedural law, once again minimum further information on this matter is generally provided. The courts which are deciding on EEO are district courts and they act in accordance with Section 167 of the Civil Procedure act: "unless otherwise provided by law, the court shall decide by order. The order shall in particular decide on the terms of the proceedings, on the stay or interruption of proceedings, on the rejection of the application, on the amendment of the application, on the withdrawal of the application, on conciliation, on the costs of the proceedings and on matters relating to the conduct of the proceedings." The form for filling in the EEO is available from the European Union website44, in the Czech proceedings it is possible to select in particular Confirmation of the European Enforcement Order - Decision, Confirmation of the European Enforcement Order - Court Settlement or Confirmation of the European Enforcement Order - Public Document.

3. rules on service

The forms in the context of the EOP and EEO have been discussed above. The allegations then need to be supported under the standard assessment of evidence. The main methods of communication are set out in Section 42 off the Civil Procedure Act and mainly it can be done by sending it to the electronic address of the relevant court, the document has to be signed with qualified electronic signature (or by Czech specific equivalent to the qualified electronic signature). Another option is to use and send the document through the so-called data boxes, which is a specifically Czech instrument used for electronic delivery in which delivery and receipt is also confirmed. The submission can also be sent to the relevant address by email, but this is again accompanied by the qualified electronic signature. The fees related to the EOP can be found on the e-Justice portal of the European commission45 and are as follows: up to CZK 20,000, the fee is a fixed amount of CZK 1,000; the amount exceeding CZK 20,000 and not exceeding CZK 40,000,000, the fee shall be 5% of that amount; the amount exceeding CZK 40 000 000, the fee shall be CZK 2 000 000 and 1 % of the amount exceeding CZK 40 000 000; the amount exceeding CZK 250 000 000 shall not be included. In connection to EEO the certificate of European Enforcement Order shall be issued on the basis of an application which any party to the proceedings in which the judgment was given is entitled to make. The application shall be free of charge and may be lodged with the court which issued the judgment.

4. Language of the certificate and documents to be appended

The relevant e-forms for the filing are available on the official e-Justice platform of the European union with their official translation into the national language. As per the language of the proceeding, it is always mandatorily in the Czech language. Any additional documents submitted with the form must be submitted in their original or authorized copy. If the language of the document is different from Czech, the original needs to be supplemented by their official translation (i.e. translated by officially certified translation service provider). Any filing can be submitted without the translation, but the court will subsequently prompt the party to supplement the translation, unless the court is "well versed" in the language (which would be typically the case of submissions in Slovak language).

5. enforcement fees

The fees for the EOP proceedings can be found on the e-Justice portal of the European commission47 and they are generally tied to the value of the matter sought to be resolved in the proceeding. More specifically they are as follows: up to CZK 20,000, the fee is a fixed amount of CZK 1,000; the amount exceeding CZK 20,000 and not exceeding CZK 40,000,000, the fee shall be 5% of that amount; the amount exceeding CZK 40 000 000, the fee shall be CZK 2 000 000 and 1 % of the amount exceeding CZK 40 000 000; the amount exceeding CZK 250 000 000 shall not be included. As per the Enforcement Order, its issuance is free of charge as it is tied to the already existing proceeding that has had its own fee already paid.

6. Refusal, stay, or limitation of the enforcement procedure under the regulation in question in

the intended Member State (a) under EOP Regulation, and (b) under EEO Regulation

Besides the general rules listed in the Articles 22 and 23 of the EOP Regulation, the Czech law provides for a specific institute of the renewal of the finished proceeding with a binding decision, even in the case of European Order of Payment (as specifically stipulated by the Section 229 of the Civil Procedure Act). This can be done in the specific cases of the so called "confusion" if the Order of Payment has been issued in the case where another proceeding has been previously initiated, or there already was issued a decision in said matter or if the Order is deemed non-executable in the execution proceeding as per the Section 261a of the Civil Procedure Act (i.e. the parties are not properly identified in the order or the identical satisfaction is sought from several parties). To a degree this process mirrors the conditions stipulated in the Article 22 of EOP. Under the national law applications under the Section 229 are seen as an extraordinary means of appeal. Further the court may refuse to issue an order if the satisfaction sought is non-monetary and may transform the proceeding into an "ordinary" civil procedure. The execution based upon the European Enforcement title may be refused on less grounds, specifically if the execution is clashing with a previous binding decision.

7. Availability of any legal aid for guidance on the enforcement procedures under the

regulation in question in the intended Member State (a) under EOP Regulation, and (b) under EEO Regulation+

The general information for both of these procedures can be found at the European e-justice platform. As per a legal assistance as such the Czech Bar Association offers a short legal consultation for either free (if the conditions of below living minimum wage are met or the applicant is a person with disability) or at considerable discount. The Bar charges 100 CZK (approx. 4 EUR) per 30 minutes long consultation, for which one can apply 4 times a year at most. A brief guideline for the receiver of the Order are also available at the website of the ministry of justice of the Czech Republic.

8. Critical assessment of the enforcement procedures under the regulation in question in the

intended Member State (a) under EOP Regulation, and (b) under EEO Regulation

Generally, both of these specific European instruments are handled similar to standard civil court proceedings and their specificities, compared to other civil proceedings are rather minimal. According to our information, Czech courts have learned to deal with such forms of dispute resolution electronically (also because the Czech payment order is widely used within the Czech Republic at the national level) utilising the available e-forms as well as preferring the available means of electronic communication both for filing as well as notifying the parties involved. However, it should be pointed out that in general, information, especially from the public administration, on these alternative procedures is rather scarce, the main information portal where one can get acquainted with (albeit often outdated) information is the website of the European Commission and there is lack of specialised legal assistance in these matters as well as there is a lack of awareness of these tools.