On Tuesday 9 April, the Council of the European Union formally adopted new rules on the treatment of certain appeals before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in order to relieve the Court of Justice.
The adoption of these rules echoes a proposal of the CJEU on this subject in March 2018. Last December, a meeting between representatives of the former Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the European Parliament, the Commission and the CJEU (‘quadrilogue’) agreed on an amendment to Protocol No. 3 on the Statute of the CJEU.
Thus, according to this Interinstitutional Agreement, appeals before the Court of Justice concerning decisions of the European Union Intellectual Property Office, the Community Plant Variety Office, the European Chemicals Agency or the European Union Aviation Safety Agency will be treated differently from the one currently in force.
Indeed, if they have already benefited from a double review by an independent board of appeal and then by the General Court of the EU, such appeals before the Court will only be admitted if they raise an issue that is significant with respect to the unity, consistency or development of EU law.
These new rules should reduce the Court's workload at a time when the number of cases it has to deal with has increased significantly in recent years.
In addition, the rules adopted today will give the Court of Justice alone (and no longer the Court of Justice and the General Court) jurisdiction to hear disputes relating to the payment of a lump sum or penalty payment by a State for failure to comply with a judgement delivered by the Court under Article 260 (2) or (3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)