European Small Claims Procedure and Its Place in the System of Polish Separate Proceedings

Abstract

The European proceedings in cross-border cases, to which the European order for payment and the European Small Claims Procedures belong, were introduced into Polish legal system on 12 December 2008 as an alternative to the existing proceedings provided for in the laws of the Member States. The base for the application of the European Small Claims Procedure is Regulation (EC) No 861/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007, establishing the European Small Claims Procedure. The Polish legislator decided to place a modest regulation of these procedures amongst separate proceedings. To approximate the subject issue, the nature of the European Small Claims Procedure needs to be considered along with its relations with selected separate proceedings (such as order for payment proceedings, writ of payment proceedings, electronic writ of payment proceedings, simplified procedure and European order for payment procedure), the nature of which justifies including them in the group of accelerated and simplified proceedings.