Brussels, 02/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The number of cases being brought before the three courts which make up the Court of Justice of the European Union is constantly increasing but the time taken to deal with them is tending generally to be shorter. These are the two strong trends revealed by statistics published on 2 March by the Court of Justice of the EU. A total of 1,406 cases were brought in 2010 in the three courts. The breakdown is:
In 2010 the Court of Justice had 631 new cases brought before it, the highest number of cases brought in its history and a very significant increase compared with 2009, when there were 562 new cases. The situation is identical as regards references for a preliminary ruling. In 2010 the number of references for a preliminary ruling submitted was, for the second year in succession, the highest ever reached and it was a 27.4% increase on 2009 (385 cases in 2010 compared with 302 cases in 2009). The statistics on the duration of proceedings are very positive. In the case of references for a preliminary ruling, the average duration amounted to 16.1 months, the least amount of time during the whole period for which the Court has reliable statistics. The average time taken to deal with direct actions and appeals was 16.7 months and 14.3 months respectively (compared with 17.1 months and 15.4 months in 2009).
The General Court also saw a large increase in the number of new cases brought, rising from 568 in 2009 to 636 in 2010, a level never before reached. Another trend is maintenance of the number of cases completed at appreciably above 500 (527 cases completed). This was nevertheless not sufficient to contain the increase in pending cases, which numbered 1,300 on 31 December 2010. For the General Court, too, the duration of proceedings, a fundamental criterion for evaluating the Court's work was reduced by an average of 2.5 months, from 27.2 months in 2009 to 24.7 months in 2010. The reduction is even more appreciable as regards cases decided by judgment in the areas that since the General Court's creation have been at the heart of its caseload - that is to say, the areas other than appeals and intellectual property - for which a reduction of more than seven months in the duration of proceedings was recorded.
Finally, the statistics relating to the Civil Service Tribunal's judicial activity show a significant increase in 2010 in the number of cases brought - 139 cases, compared with 113 in 2009. The number of cases completed (129) is lower than the number in the previous year (155). The number of cases pending is slightly higher than in the previous year (185 on 31 December 2010 compared with 175 on 31 December 2009). The average duration of proceedings also increased slightly (18.1 months in 2010 compared with 15.1 months in 2009). Nevertheless, these figures do not appear to reflect a structural trend, the Court says. (F.G./transl.rt)