European Enforcement Order in France: Regulation 805/2004

A judgment certified as a European Enforcement Order is enforced in France with no declaration of enforceability. French law decides who issues the certificate, and French case law decides how little a debtor can still argue.

Published on 12 August 2026

Enforcing a European Enforcement Order in France requires no French declaration of enforceability. A creditor holding an uncontested claim certified in another Member State moves directly to forced enforcement. What French law adds to the Regulation is narrow, and that narrowness is where the practical difficulties sit.

What the European Enforcement Order is, and which claims qualify

Regulation (EC) No 805/2004 of 21 April 2004 created the European Enforcement Order, a certificate delivered by the court that gave the decision. Article 5 states the effect. A certified decision is recognised and enforced in the other Member States, with no declaration of enforceability, and its recognition cannot be contested.

Certification rests on a single condition, and French courts apply it literally. The claim must be uncontested within the meaning of Article 3 § 1. Four situations qualify:

the debtor has expressly agreed to the claim;
the debtor has never objected to it in the course of the proceedings;
the debtor has failed to appear at a hearing after initially contesting the claim;
the debtor has expressly agreed to the claim in an authentic instrument.

A contested claim falls outside Regulation 805/2004 altogether. The creditor then turns to another instrument, and the Brussels I bis Regulation is the usual one.

The consequence is worth stating plainly. The European Enforcement Order removes any need for exequatur, the judicial procedure by which a French court declares a foreign decision enforceable. The creditor therefore skips an entire set of French proceedings, and no French judge examines the foreign decision before enforcement begins.

Certifying a French title as a European Enforcement Order

French law sends the request to the judge, not to the court office. Article 509-1, II, 1° of the Code de procédure civile governs the point. An application to certify a French enforceable title under Regulation 805/2004 goes to the judge who gave the decision or approved the settlement.

That allocation is not an internal housekeeping detail. The neighbouring instruments follow a different rule. Certification under Brussels I bis, Regulation 44/2001 or the 2007 Lugano Convention falls to the directeur de greffe, who heads the court office. A creditor who files a European Enforcement Order application at the registry desk has knocked on the wrong door.

Article 509-1 adds a second point that a foreign creditor watching costs will want to know. Applications made to the judge are exempt from the requirement of representation by a lawyer. French procedure normally imposes that representation before the tribunal judiciaire, the ordinary civil court of first instance. The certification application escapes it.

Notarial deeds take a third route. Article 509-3, II, 1° derogates from Article 509-1 for authentic instruments. The application goes to the notary, or to the firm holding the original deed. A French loan deed or mortgage deed therefore carries its certificate from the notary, with no court involved at all. Both articles took their current wording from Décret n° 2023-25 of 23 January 2023.

Enforcing a foreign European Enforcement Order in France

The creditor instructs a commissaire de justice, the French enforcement officer formerly called huissier de justice. That officer serves the certified decision on the debtor and then levies the measure chosen by the creditor. A bank account is reached by saisie-attribution, the French garnishment of monetary claims held by a third party.

No preliminary step stands between the certificate and the seizure, because Article 5 of the Regulation removes it. The creditor produces the decision and the certificate issued in the Member State of origin. French enforcement law then applies to everything that follows: the form of the acts, the time limits for objection, and the ranking of competing creditors. The wider machinery is set out in our guide to French enforcement procedures.

Disputes arising from the seizure go before the juge de l’exécution, the enforcement judge, usually abbreviated to JEX. Article L. 213-6 of the Code de l’organisation judiciaire gives that judge exclusive jurisdiction. The jurisdiction covers difficulties relating to enforceable titles and challenges arising during forced enforcement, even where the challenge concerns the substance of the right.

What the French enforcement judge may not reopen

Exclusive jurisdiction does not mean unlimited review, and the Cour de cassation drew the line early. The second civil chamber ruled on 22 February 2012, in a decision published in its Bulletin. The chamber held a French debtor inadmissible before the juge de l’exécution, because he challenged the service of the foreign decision.

The facts are ordinary enough to be useful. An Italian company obtained a payment order from the tribunal of Turin and had it certified as a European Enforcement Order. The company then levied a saisie-attribution in France against a French debtor. The debtor argued before the JEX that the Italian order had never told it how to object. Articles 17 and 18 of the Regulation, on the debtor’s reading, required the decision to name the court hearing objections.

The Cour de cassation rejected the argument without examining it. A certified decision is recognised and enforced without any possibility of contesting its recognition. The challenge was therefore inadmissible, and the court below owed no enquiry into the Italian service. The debtor’s remedy, if any, lay in Italy.

For a foreign creditor the practical effect is blunt. Everything that happened before certification is closed in France. The debtor who slept on an Italian, German or Spanish notification cannot reopen it in Marseille or Paris.

The defence that works: the certificate dies with the judgment

One line of attack does succeed in France, and it operates on the title rather than on the seizure. Article 11 of the Regulation limits the effects of the certificate to the enforceability of the underlying decision. If the decision stops being enforceable at home, the French measure loses its legal basis.

The second civil chamber applied that rule on 6 January 2012, in a decision also published in its Bulletin. A creditor had enforced in France a title certified by the Amtsgericht of Stuttgart, levying a saisie-attribution and registering a judicial mortgage. German courts then annulled the underlying enforcement order. The Oberlandesgericht of Karlsruhe certified under Article 6 § 2 that the decision was no longer enforceable. The Cour de cassation approved the release of the French seizure.

Two further points of that case repay attention. The French enforcement judge had first stayed its own proceedings while the German challenge ran. Article 23 of the Regulation contemplates that stay when the debtor seeks review, rectification or withdrawal of the certificate. And the creditor who pressed on after learning that the title had gone was ordered to pay damages for abuse of process.

The sequencing matters commercially. A creditor who enforces on a certificate under attack at home carries the risk of restitution and of damages. Solent Avocats acts for foreign creditors in France at exactly that point. Levying now or waiting has a price either way.

Choosing between the EEO, Brussels I bis and the European Order for Payment

Three European instruments can reach the same cross-border debt, and the choice is rarely neutral. The European Enforcement Order certifies a decision, a court settlement or an authentic instrument that already exists. The Brussels I bis Regulation covers civil and commercial decisions generally, whatever the debtor did.

The third route creates the title instead of certifying it, and compares with the European Order for Payment on that ground. A creditor with no judgment at all starts there rather than with Regulation 805/2004.

French case law treats the three instruments consistently, which helps in planning. The second civil chamber ruled again on 27 June 2019, in a decision published in its Bulletin. The juge de l’exécution has no jurisdiction to annul the service of a European order for payment declared enforceable in its Member State of origin. The reasoning of 2012 on the European Enforcement Order therefore held seven years later on a neighbouring instrument.

Outside the Union, or where no European instrument applies, the older machinery still governs cross-border enforcement in France. The creditor then needs a French declaration of enforceability before touching a single asset.

Sources

EU regulations

Regulation (EC) No 805/2004, consolidated 4 December 2008: European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims

French law

CPC, art. 509-1: certification of French enforceable titles for use abroad
CPC, art. 509-3: certification of French notarial authentic instruments
COJ, art. L. 213-6: exclusive jurisdiction of the juge de l’exécution
Décret n° 2023-25 of 23 January 2023: current wording of articles 509-1 and 509-3 CPC

Case law

Cass. civ. 2e, 22 February 2012, no. 10-28.379, published in the Bulletin (ECLI:FR:CCASS:2012:C200317): a debtor cannot challenge before the juge de l’exécution the service of a decision certified as a European Enforcement Order
Cass. civ. 2e, 6 January 2012, no. 10-23.518, published in the Bulletin (ECLI:FR:CCASS:2012:C200006): the certificate takes effect only within the limits of the enforceability of the decision (Article 11)
Cass. civ. 2e, 27 June 2019, no. 18-14.198, published in the Bulletin (ECLI:FR:CCASS:2019:C200904): the juge de l’exécution has no jurisdiction over the service of a European order for payment

FAQ: the European Enforcement Order in France

Creditors enforcing a European Enforcement Order in France ask five recurring questions: which authority issues the certificate, whether a French lawyer is needed, whether a French court can refuse enforcement, what happens when the original decision falls, and how the instrument differs from the European Order for Payment.

Which French authority issues a European Enforcement Order certificate?

The judge who gave the decision or approved the settlement, under Article 509-1, II, 1° of the Code de procédure civile. Certification under Brussels I bis or under the Lugano Convention goes instead to the directeur de greffe. French notarial deeds are certified by the notary holding the original deed (CPC, art. 509-3, II, 1°).

Does a creditor need a French lawyer to obtain the certificate?

Not for the certification application itself. Article 509-1 of the Code de procédure civile exempts applications made to the judge from the requirement of representation by a lawyer. Enforcement in France is another matter, since the creditor must instruct a commissaire de justice and will face the juge de l’exécution if the debtor objects.

Can a French court refuse to enforce a European Enforcement Order?

No French declaration of enforceability is required, and Article 5 of Regulation 805/2004 bars any challenge to recognition. The Cour de cassation held on 22 February 2012 that a debtor cannot contest before the juge de l’exécution the way the foreign decision was served before certification (no. 10-28.379, published in the Bulletin).

What happens if the original decision stops being enforceable?

The French measure falls with it. Article 11 limits the effects of the certificate to the enforceability of the decision. On 6 January 2012 the Cour de cassation upheld the release of a saisie-attribution after German courts annulled the underlying order (no. 10-23.518, published in the Bulletin). The creditor who persisted was ordered to pay damages.

How does the European Enforcement Order differ from the European Order for Payment?

The European Enforcement Order certifies a title that already exists, whereas the European Order for Payment creates one. A creditor holding an unchallenged judgment or an authentic instrument uses Regulation 805/2004. A creditor holding only an unpaid invoice applies for a European order for payment under Regulation 1896/2006.

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