Train to Enforce – a new EU project
Train to Enforce is a combined research and training project aimed at facilitating free movement within the EU for judgments, primarily related to payment.
Uppsala University is a partner along with seven other European universities in this EU-financed project that formally began on 1 October and will continue for two and a half years.
“A judgment that cannot be enforced is a poor and costly judgment”, says Marie Linton, senior lecturer in international private law and procedural law with the Faculty of Law.
Linton and Eric Bylander, professor of procedural law with the same faculty, are representing Uppsala University in the project, which involves scholars from throughout Europe and is being led by the Faculty of Law at the University of Maribor, Slovenia.
Several legal avenues for enforcing a judgment in one EU country in another Member State have come about through the EU, but they are not being used as efficiently and consistently as intended.
“Just as a judgment is not worth the paper it is written on if it is not enforced, a regulation is not worth the paper it is written on if it is not applied”, says Bylander.
Through an unusual combination of legal scholarship and advanced training for lawyers, the Train to Enforce project is intended to improve understanding of enforcement opportunities under EU law and increase mutual trust between people working in different national legal systems within the EU.
The project is being run by legal scholars in collaboration with practising lawyers in various EU countries. Stakeholders in Sweden including the Swedish Bar Association have expressed their support for the project.
Maria Cicilaki