The EU Court of Justice welcomed an increase in its productivity, which enabled it to close 760 cases in 2018, a "historical record", compared to 699 the previous year, according to judicial statistics it published on Monday 25 March.
Last year, the number of new cases brought before the Court increased significantly, from 739 to 849. This increase is mainly due to the increase in the number of references for a preliminary ruling (568 cases) and appeals against decisions of the General Court (199 cases).
The Court also reported a decrease in the duration of proceedings. The decrease is mainly related to the processing of appeals (just over 13 months), while the duration of references for a preliminary ruling increased slightly.
With regard to the General Court, the number of completed cases also increased, reaching a record number of 1,009 cases, an increase of 13% compared to 2017. As filings decreased by almost 9% (834 cases) in 2018, the number of pending cases decreased significantly from 1,508 to 1,333 cases.
The overall duration of proceedings before the General Court increased slightly to 20 months, mainly due to a large number of competition cases, which require much lengthier proceedings than the average. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)