03/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - Council approves reform of General Court. On Thursday 3 December, the Council of Ministers of the EU approved the reform of the statute of the Court of Justice of the EU, the main effect of which will be to double the number of judges appointed to the General Court. By 2019, there will be 56 General Court judges. This marks the end of four years of tough negotiations, the European Parliament having approved the agreement on 28 October (see EUROPE 11421). The impact on the EU budget of this reform, which will come into effect at the end of December with the arrival of 12 further judges, is estimated at 0.001%. In September 2016, the seven posts of of judges at the Civil Service Tribunal will be transferred to the General Court, to which nine further judges will be attributed in September 2019. At the end of November, there were 1,270 pending cases in the General Court. (JK)