Extinderea pragului valoric al procedurii românești a cererilor cu valoare redusă // Extension of the Value Threshold of the Romanian Small Claims Procedure

The Romanian small claims procedure was introduced by Law nr. 134/2010, Code of Civil Procedure, under the influence of European Union regulations. According to art. 1026 (unchanged since 2010), the value threshold up to which this track can be used was set at 10,000 lei, on the date of the court referral (i.e. 2,375.35 euros, at the average annual exchange rate of the euro in 2010). At the same time, Regulation (EU) No 861/2007 fixed the value threshold of the European Small Claims Procedure at EUR 2000. Currently, by Regulation (EU) 2015/2421, the scope of that procedure has been extended to the amount of EUR 5000. Considering the intention of the Romanian legislator to grant this procedure a broader internal scope than that outlined by the EU law, the inflation rate in Romania and the need to harmonize the internal procedure with that of cross-border disputes, we infer the need to update the value threshold up to the equivalent in lei of 5000 euros or more.