Accepting substantial amendments to the original text proposed by the European Parliament, the European Commission adopted in mid-February a “Draft Regulation on the law applicable to extra-contractual obligations”, better known as Regulation “Rome II”. The text concerns the ever-growing number of legal disputes arising from “the growth of the movement of goods and persons within the Union”, with the objective of “ensuring that the judges of all member states apply the same law to cross-border disputes relating to extra-contractual obligations, so as to facilitate the mutual recognition of judicial sentences in the European Union”. According to the EU Commissioner for justice, liberty and security Franco Frattini, “the draft Regulation, which regards all citizens and all economic sectors, is essential if we want to create a European judicial system where the outcome of a dispute no longer entirely depends on the courts of the member state in which the legal action is brought”.
