ELRA: European Land Registry Association

August 21, 2008

 

In October 2004, a group of Land Registry organisations decided that the time was right to create a European Association to represent the interests of Land Registries in the EU. This initiative was supported by Mr Antonio Vitorino, the former Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner.

ELRA (European Land Registry Association) started off with 12 members; it now has 23 organizations representing the land registries of 20 Member States, and is still growing.

ELRA wants to underline the significance of Land Registries in Europe as juridical institutions and the scope of the effects of registration pronouncements as a fundamental tool for progress and change in the rule of law in the field of property and rights on immovables.

The primary purpose of ELRA is the development and understanding of the role of land registration in real property and capital markets. Equally, ELRA is fully committed to work on behalf of Land Registries in Europe in cooperating with the EU institutions.

It is known that the rules governing the Land Registration Systems are very closely related to those laws governing the property and real estate rights in every country. It is also known that these rights are rooted in the tradition of every system which therefore explains the assertion of the European treaties that "the Community law does not prejudge the Property System in every State".

However, at the present moment in the evolution of the European Community Law, the European role of the Land Registration Systems can not be ignored, and so Land Registries are a fundamental tool for the good functioning of basic community freedoms, such as the freedom of movement of people and capital and the freedom of establishment.

Land Registries can also be a valuable instrument for the achievement of the goals of the environmental community policies and they can provide help to judicial cooperation in the EU providing a secure playing field in this matter when immovables are involved. Also, the Land Registry institutions play a significant part in the creation of a real European mortgage market.

In this context, ELRA wants to promote the mutual knowledge of the different Land Registry Systems throughout Europe as well as to lay the conditions for a profitable cooperation with the European institutions. This collaboration with the EU as by ELRA as the official representative body of the Land Registries in the European Union has been the main achievement of the Association to date and this has resulted in a grant from DG Justice to co-finance its activities in 2007.

We believe that Land Registries are a fundamental pillar of legal certainty and ELRA’s commitment is to ensure the transfer of this principal into Community Law.

 

ELRA Board of Directors