On January 10, 2015, new rules from the European Commission entered into force that allow cross-border enforceable judgments in civil and commercial matters to be automatically enforceable across all European Union states.  According to the press release [3], the rules were established in order to simplify business rules and will “abolish the costly and lengthy procedure, which is currently used 10,000 times per year to get judgments in civil and commercial matters recognised in other EU countries.”  The rules will ensure that when a “judgment is made in any Member State, the creditor will be able to enforce it in any other,” although “[u]nder exceptional circumstances, it will still be possible for courts to stop the judgment being enforced, for instance if the court in the other Member State violated the right to a fair trial.”