The impact of the Brussels Ibis Regulation on the ‘second generation’ of European procedural law

The Brussels Ibis Regulation has established direct enforcement as the new general standard for enforcement, altogether abolishing exequatur and the need for an intermediate procedure aiming at a declaration of enforceability. This step completes what the Regulations of the so-called Second Generation of European Procedural Law have once begun, with the Uncontested Claims Regulation being the icebreaker in 2004. Yet it raises the question about the fate of this ‘Second Generation’ besides the Brussels Ibis Regulation. The ‘Second Generation’ has not been formally repealed and is thus still in existence (the Small Claims Regulations has even been revised). In detail, it might still offer some advantages to creditors if compared to the Brussels Ibis Regulation. But practitioners’ knowledge and use of the ‘Second Generation’ has always been negligible. In material terms, the Brussels Ibis Regulation and its new general standard signal the coup de grâce for the ‘Second Generation’. This ‘Second generation’ has served its political purpose, though, paving the way for general system change as implemented by the Brussels Ibis Regulation.