Court of Justice 23 April 2026, C-799/24 (Opinion of Advocate General Emiliou delivered on 23 April 2026.)

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Advocate General Emiliou opines in Case C-799/24 (Babcock Montajes S.A. v Kanadevia Inova Steinmüller GmbH) that an interim decision by which a court of a Member State, seised first, declares itself to have international jurisdiction—without yet adjudicating the merits—constitutes a 'judgment' within the meaning of Articles 2(a) and 36(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 and must be recognised in other Member States, even where that decision was adopted in alleged breach of the exclusive choice-of-court agreement rule in Article 31(2) of that Regulation, since the exhaustive grounds for refusal of recognition in Article 45(1) do not include violation of a choice-of-court agreement. The AG further opines that, while the obligation to recognise such a judgment arises regardless of whether it is final, the obligation of the designated court seised second to decline jurisdiction under Article 29(3) of Regulation No 1215/2012 is triggered only when the jurisdiction of the non-designated court seised first has been 'established'—meaning it can no longer be contested in the ongoing proceedings. The opinion thus draws a distinction between the recognition obligation and the moment at which the lis pendens rule compels the designated court to decline jurisdiction, with a view to avoiding both parallel proceedings and negative conflicts of jurisdiction.AI