CHAPTER IV

FINAL PROVISIONS

Defendant not entering an appearance
Article 22
1
Where a document instituting proceedings or its equivalent has had to be transmitted to another Member State for the purpose of service under this Regulation and the defendant has not entered an appearance, judgment shall not be given until it is established that the service or the delivery of the document was effected in sufficient time to enable the defendant to enter a defence and that:
a
the document was served by a method prescribed by the law of the Member State addressed for the service of documents in domestic actions upon persons who are within its territory; or
b
the document was in fact delivered to the defendant or to the defendant’s residence by another method provided for by this Regulation.
2
Each Member State may communicate to the Commission the fact that a court, notwithstanding paragraph 1, may give judgment even if no certificate of service or delivery of the document instituting proceedings or its equivalent has been received, provided that all the following conditions are fulfilled:
a
the document was transmitted by one of the methods provided for in this Regulation;
b
a period considered adequate by the court in the particular case, which shall not be less than six months, has elapsed since the date of the transmission of the document;
c
no certificate of any kind has been received, even though every reasonable effort has been made to obtain one through the competent authorities or bodies of the Member State addressed.
That information shall be made available through the European e-Justice Portal.
3
Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 and 2, in justified cases of urgency courts may order any provisional or protective measures.
4
Where a document instituting proceedings or its equivalent has had to be transmitted to another Member State for the purpose of service in accordance with this Regulation and a judgment has been given against a defendant who has not entered an appearance, the judge shall have the power to relieve the defendant from the effects of the expiry of the time for appeal from the judgment where both of the following conditions are fulfilled:
a
the defendant, without any fault on the defendant’s part, did not have knowledge of the document in sufficient time to enter a defence or did not have knowledge of the judgment in sufficient time to appeal; and
b
the defendant has raised a prima facie defence to the action on the merits.
An application for such relief may be filed only within a reasonable time after the defendant has knowledge of the judgment.
Each Member State may communicate to the Commission the fact that an application for relief will not be admissible if it is filed after the expiry of a deadline set by the Member State in that communication. That deadline shall in no case be sooner than one year following the date of the judgment. That information shall be made available through the European e-Justice Portal.
5
Paragraph 4 shall not apply to judgments concerning the status or capacity of persons.

Amendment of Annex I
Article 23
The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 24 to amend Annex I in order to update the forms set out therein or to make technical changes to those forms.

Exercise of the delegation
Article 24
1
The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article.
2
The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article 23 shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from 22 December 2020. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period.
3
The delegation of power referred to in Article 23 may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.
4
Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making.
5
As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council.
6
A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article 23 shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by two months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.

Adoption of implementing acts by the Commission
Article 25
1
The Commission shall adopt implementing acts establishing the decentralised IT system, setting out the following:
a
the technical specifications defining the methods of communication by electronic means for the purposes of the decentralised IT system;
b
the technical specifications for communication protocols;
c
the information security objectives and relevant technical measures ensuring minimum information security standards for the processing and communication of information within the decentralised IT system;
d
the minimum availability objectives and possible related technical requirements for the services provided by the decentralised IT system;
e
the establishment of a steering committee comprising representatives of the Member States to ensure the operation and maintenance of the decentralised IT system in order to meet the objectives of this Regulation.
2
The implementing acts referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be adopted by 23 March 2022 in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 26(2).

Committee procedure
Article 26
1
The Commission shall be assisted by a committee. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.
2
Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.

Reference implementation software
Article 27
1
The Commission shall be responsible for the creation, maintenance and future development of reference implementation software which Member States may choose to apply as their back-end system instead of a national IT system. The creation, maintenance and future development of the reference implementation software shall be financed from the general budget of the Union.
2
The Commission shall provide, maintain and support on a free-of-charge basis implementation of the software components underlying the access points.

Costs of the decentralised IT system
Article 28
1
Each Member State shall bear the costs of the installation, operation and maintenance of its access points interconnecting the national IT systems in the context of the decentralised IT system.
2
Each Member State shall bear the costs of establishing and adjusting its national IT systems to make them interoperable with the access points and shall bear the costs of administering, operating and maintaining those systems.
3
Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be without prejudice to the possibility of Member States to apply for grants to support the activities referred to in those paragraphs under the Union’s financial programmes.

Relationship with agreements or arrangements between Member States
Article 29
1
This Regulation shall prevail in relation to matters to which it applies over other provisions contained in bilateral or multilateral agreements or arrangements concluded by Member States, and in particular the Hague Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, in relations between the Member States party thereto.
2
This Regulation shall not preclude Member States from maintaining or concluding agreements or arrangements to expedite or further simplify the transmission of documents, provided that those agreements or arrangements are compatible with this Regulation.
3
Member States shall send to the Commission:
a
a copy of any agreements or arrangements referred to in paragraph 2 concluded between the Member States, as well as drafts of any such agreements or arrangements which they intend to adopt; and
b
any denunciation of, or amendments to, those agreements or arrangements.

Legal aid
Article 30
This Regulation shall not affect the application of Article 24 of the Hague Convention of 1 March 1954 on Civil Procedure or Article 13 of the Convention on International Access to Justice of 25 October 1980 between the Member States party to those Conventions.

Protection of information transmitted
Article 31
1
Any processing of personal data carried out pursuant to this Regulation, including the exchange or transmission of personal data by the competent authorities, shall be in conformity with Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
Any exchange or transmission of information by competent authorities at Union level shall be undertaken in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.
Personal data which are not relevant for the handling of a specific case shall be deleted immediately.
2
The competent authority or authorities under national law shall be regarded as controllers within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 with respect to personal data processing under this Regulation.
3
Notwithstanding paragraphs 1 and 2, information transmitted under this Regulation shall be used by the receiving agency only for the purpose for which it was transmitted.
4
Receiving agencies shall ensure that such information remains confidential, in accordance with their national law.
5
Paragraphs 3 and 4 shall be without prejudice to national laws enabling data subjects to be informed of the use made of information transmitted under this Regulation.
6
This Regulation shall be without prejudice to Directive 2002/58/EC.

Respect for fundamental rights under Union law
Article 32
The fundamental rights and freedoms of all persons involved shall be fully observed and respected in accordance with Union law, in particular the rights to equal access to justice, to non-discrimination and to the protection of personal data and privacy.

Communication, publication and manual
Article 33
1
Member States shall communicate to the Commission the information referred to in Articles 3, 7, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20 and 22.
Member States shall communicate to the Commission if their national law requires a document to be served within a particular period as referred to in Articles 12(5) and 13(2).
2
Member States may notify the Commission if they are in a position to operate the decentralised IT system earlier than required by this Regulation. The Commission shall make such information available electronically, in particular through the European e-Justice Portal.
3
The Commission shall publish the information communicated in accordance with paragraph 1 in the Official Journal of the European Union, with the exception of the addresses and other contact details of the agencies and of the central bodies and the geographical areas in which they have jurisdiction.
4
The Commission shall draw up and regularly update a manual containing the information referred to in paragraph 1. It shall make the manual available electronically, in particular through the European Judicial Network in Civil and Commercial Matters and on the European e-Justice Portal.

Monitoring
Article 34
1
By 2 July 2023, the Commission shall establish a detailed programme for monitoring the outputs, results and impact of this Regulation.
2
The monitoring programme shall specify the action to be taken by the Commission and by the Member States to monitor the outputs, results and impact of this Regulation. It shall set out when the data referred to in paragraph 3 are to be collected for the first time, which shall be at the latest 2 July 2026, and at what further intervals those data are to be collected.
3
Member States shall provide the Commission with the following data necessary for the purposes of monitoring, where available:
a
the number of requests for the service of documents transmitted in accordance with Article 8;
b
the number of requests for the service of documents executed in accordance with Article 11;
c
the number of cases in which the request for the service of documents was transmitted by means other than through the decentralised IT system in accordance with Article 5(4);
d
the number of received certificates of non-service of documents;
e
the number of refusals of documents for language reasons received by the transmitting agencies.
4
The reference implementation software and, where equipped to do so, the national back-end system shall programmatically collect the data referred to in points (a), (b) and (d) of paragraph 3 and transmit them to the Commission on a regular basis.

Evaluation
Article 35
1
No later than five years after the date of application of Article 5 in accordance with Article 37(2), the Commission shall carry out an evaluation of this Regulation and present a report on its main findings to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee, accompanied, where appropriate, by a legislative proposal.
2
Member States shall provide the Commission with the information necessary for the preparation of the report referred to in paragraph 1.

Repeal
Article 36
1
Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007 shall be repealed as from the date of application of this Regulation, with the exception of Articles 4 and 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1393/2007, which shall be repealed as from the date of application of Articles 5, 8 and 10 referred to in Article 37(2) of this Regulation.
2
References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex III.

Entry into force and application
Article 37
1
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 1 July 2022.
2
Articles 5, 8 and 10 shall apply from the first day of the month following the period of three years after the date of entry into force of the implementing acts referred to in Article 25.