The Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union has left unchanged the six areas in which the EU General Court may in future be asked for preliminary rulings, in the compromise proposal on an unprecedented reform of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union that it submitted to the Member States at the end of April.
The six areas in which a reference to the General Court for a preliminary ruling could be made are: the common system of value added tax (VAT), excise duties, the Community Customs Code and the tariff classification of goods in the Combined Nomenclature, compensation and assistance to passengers and the greenhouse gas Emissions Trading System.
According to the Court of Justice, which took the initiative at the end of 2022 to propose the amendment of its own statute, this granting of new powers to the General Court (authorised by Article 256(3) TFEU) meets “a concern for the proper administration of justice”. It notes that the number of requests for preliminary rulings is growing (from 470 requests in 2016 to 567 in 2021) and has resulted in longer proceedings (more than 17 months on average), which are “more complex and sensitive”. Moreover, of the 630 cases in which a preliminary question was submitted in the six areas identified, only three cases were the subject of judgments of principle by the Grand Chamber of the Court.
Following the reform of the EU’s judicial architecture in July 2022, the General Court now has two judges per Member State and its internal reorganisation has resulted in a partial specialisation of its chambers and more proactive case management. These developments allow the General Court to hear more cases and cases that are not currently within its jurisdiction, the Court says.
See the Swedish Presidency’s compromise proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/6ro
See the original proposal of the Court of Justice: https://aeur.eu/f/6rq (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)