On Thursday 7 December, representatives of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a political agreement on reforming the internal workings of the EU Court of Justice, in line with the initiative submitted by the Court in the spring (see EUROPE 13177/12, 13253/24).
Preliminary rulings in the following areas will be transferred to the General Court of the EU: VAT and excise duties, customs, air passenger compensation and the Emissions Trading System for greenhouse gases. The transfer should reduce the Court’s workload by 20%, say MEPs.
They have nevertheless obtained that the Court will continue to be responsible for ruling on preliminary questions relating to primary EU law, according to a European Parliament press release. They have also introduced clear rules for the appointment and role of the Advocates General who will be responsible for hearing cases at the General Court.
Furthermore, in view of the growing number of appeals against General Court decisions, the interinstitutional agreement extends the appeal mechanism to new cases. These arrangements will enable the Court to concentrate on the most important legal issues.
Transparency. The Parliament’s rapporteur, Ilana Cicurel (Renew Europe, French), welcomed the fact that MEPs had succeeded in introducing “unprecedented transparency measures” that will make justice more accessible to European citizens. Certain internal Court documents, such as “written observations” submitted by parties to a case, will become public, unlesse a party objects to such publication.
The European Parliament, the EU Council and the ECB will also be able to submit statements or written observations to the Court for each new question referred for a preliminary ruling.
Finally, the European Parliament and the Court of Justice will hold an annual dialogue on the functioning of the European judicial system. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)