Luxembourg, 30/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Court of Justice has published a press release in which it summarizes its annual report 2000. A succinct summary of "quantified" activities, showing that, in 2000, 870 cases were settled by European jurisdiction, 526 of which by the Court of Justice, or an increase of 33.16% on 1999. (The Court is said to have taken 463 decisions which closed 526 cases, if account is taken of joint cases. The departure of several judges who had to "empty their files" before leaving in part explains this increase in the number of rulings: Ed). The court recalls that the duration of the proceedings has remained unchanged: 21 months to reply to "prejudicial" questions submitted by national courts; - two years for direct cases; - 19 months for appeals. The average duration of proceedings before the Court of First Instance is between two years and three months.
The Court states that the 37 posts provided for in Budget 2001 should allow it to "catch-up on the texts to be translated" (150,000 pages: Ed). It then turns to the changes in the Court of First Instance's rules of procedure which took effect on 1 July 2000. (See OJ L 122, p.43) and the amendments made by the Treaty of Nice, once ratified.