[Legal status as at January 2019]

Council Regulation (EC) No 4/2009 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and cooperation in matters relating to maintenance obligations has been in force since 18 June 2011.

Text of the Regulation:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:007:0001:0079:PL:PDF

The courts that have jurisdiction to hear cases relating to maintenance obligations in the Member States are:

1. District court of the defendant's habitual residence,
2. district court of the creditor's usual place of residence,
3. a court that, under the law of the court, has jurisdiction to conduct proceedings regarding the status of a person where the matter relating to maintenance is related to this proceeding, unless that jurisdiction results only from the nationality of one of the parties; or
4. a court that, under the law of the court, has jurisdiction to conduct proceedings regarding parental responsibility where the matter relating to maintenance is related to this proceeding, unless that jurisdiction results only from the nationality of one of the parties.

When the debtor's address is known:

1. giving the creditor to the President of the competent District Court to give the case a further course,
2. application (form VI annexed to the said regulation) - completed part B and signed by the applicant; 1 copy in a bilingual language version or 2 copies in the Polish version and the official language of the country where the debtor resides),
3. copy of the judgment: judgment / decision / settlement in the form to be performed abroad (with dates from when the judgment is enforceable and from when it is legally valid),
4. an excerpt from the judgment - prepared by the court that issued the judgment,
5. calculation of maintenance arrears (month after month and year after year),
6. abridged copy of the child's birth certificate (complete if the child was born out of wedlock or changes were made to the act itself),
7. information on the account number (name and surname of the account holder, address of the account holder, name and address of the bank, international IBAN account number and bank number BIC),
8. a certificate of continuation of education by children over 16 years of age,
9. power of attorney for the receiving authority (only if the debtor is in France).

However, when the debtor's address is unknown:

1. It is possible to submit an application for seeking a debtor. It is worth filing such a request in a situation where we do not have a full set of documentation to submit an application for recognition of the decision and we want the court to deal with the matter as soon as possible and start looking for the debtor.
   1. application for seeking a debtor, which must contain information such as:
      • details of the debtor (name and surname, date, place of birth, names of parents, maiden name of the mother, identity card / passport number, identification number / social security, telephone number, last known address abroad),
      • other information that may make the debtor stay abroad, e.g.
      • part of the country in which the debtor may stay (region, city),
      • profession,
      • members of the debtor's family (personal details of parents, siblings, other relatives and their addresses) who may have contact with the debtor or know his whereabouts,
      • persons with whom the debtor may be contacted abroad or who may have information about his place of residence (please provide first name, surname, address),
      • debtor's property (eg real estate, car - registration number and brand, savings on the bank account - indicate bank and account number, other),
      • whether the debtor applied for social, family, pension, other benefits (specify what)
      • documents confirming the stay of the debtor abroad - attach if the creditor owns (eg a picture of the debtor, sent a postcard from abroad, an SSN or workplace, where he was last employed, etc.),
   2. a copy of the judgment / order / settlement settling maintenance with information on the validity and enforceability,
   3. a breakdown of arrears divided into years and months (maintenance overdue must be at least three months),
   4. a short copy of the child's birth certificate or a photocopy of the child (a complete copy should be submitted if the child comes from an extramarital relationship or changes have been made to the act itself)
   5. information about the account number to be paid for arrears outstanding from the debtor (name and surname of the account holder, address of the account holder, name and address of the bank, international IBAN account number and bank number BIC), or
2. When we have a set of documentation, we can submit an identical application as in the situation when we know the address of the debtor's stay, in the box with the address where the unknown is entered. Below is a list of documents necessary to be filed in court:
   1. giving the creditor to the President of the competent District Court to give the case a further course,
   2. application (form VI annexed to the said regulation) - completed part B and signed by the applicant; 1 copy in a bilingual language version or 2 copies in the Polish version and the official language of the country where the debtor resides),
   3. copy of the judgment: judgment / decision / settlement in the form to be performed abroad (with dates from when the judgment is enforceable and from when it is legally valid),
   4. an excerpt from the judgment - prepared by the court that issued the judgment,
   5. calculation of maintenance arrears (month after month and year after year),
   6. abridged copy of the child's birth certificate (complete if the child was born out of wedlock or changes were made to the act itself),
   7. information on the account number to be paid for arrears outstanding from the debtor (name and surname of the account holder, address of the account holder, name and address of the bank, international IBAN account number and BIC bank number),
   8. a certificate of continuation of education by children over 16 years of age,
   9. power of attorney for the receiving authority (only if the debtor is in France).

As regards costs: no stamp duties, fees or taxes are charged on the value of the subject of the dispute in proceedings for a declaration of enforceability in the Member State of enforcement.

REMARKS for Denmark!

Until now, EU provisions in matters relating to family law were not applicable to Denmark, which is not a party to the 2007 Hague Protocol and has not ratified Council Regulation (EC) No. 4/2009. This meant that there was a legal conflict involving Denmark and another EU Member State, the case was then subject to separate international agreements, if they were concluded between the countries affected by the conflict and are currently in force.

However, finally, Denmark expressed its readiness to apply the provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No. 4/2009 (still not being a party to the Hague Protocol 2007). Therefore, currently the provisions of the Council Regulation (EC) No. 4/2009 apply in principle to Denmark in the same way as to other EU countries.