Brussels, 25/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference in Brussels on 24 March, the head of press for the European Court of Justice, Hatto Kaefer, presented the institution's annual report for 2003.
The year 2003, he said, was the years of preparation for enlargement with: the constitution of 20 new posts (10 judges to the Court, 10 to the Court of First Instance: Ed), the "challenge" of working in 9 extra languages, and the arrival of 600 new staff and agents- mainly translators and interpreters- bringing the total number of Court staff to 1,700. Hatto Kaefer also spoke of the construction underway of new building, to be ready for 2007. Until then, the translators and other services will be housed in two buildings- TEBIS and GEOS, and judges' cabinets remaining where they are.
The year 2003 was also the year of the entry into force of the Treaty of Nice, on 1 February, with the following changes: -the constitution of a Grand Chamber with 11 judges (with a quorum set at 9 judges) and of a plenary assembly of 25 judges for "exceptional affairs"; - recourse to a faster procedure, without conclusions of the Advocate General. A procedure applicable particularly to cases against Member States and which has been used in 91 cases since February (different to the so-called "accelerated" procedure, which was followed in the Stability Pact case, for example: Ed).
On case-law itself, said Hatto Kaefer, statistics show that this remains "sustained" and "globally comparable" to the results of the previous year.
The 2003 reveals: the conclusion of 494 cases in the Court and 339 in the Court of First Instance (in 2002, 513 and 331 respectively); - a "considerable" increase in newly-registered cases: 561 for the Court of 466 for the Court of First Instance (477 and 411 respectively in 2002). Among cases concluded in the Court, 47% concerned references for a preliminary ruling and 39% were direct actions, and the rest were mainly appeals. The distribution of subject-matter in certain sectors was: 13% for cases concerning the environment and consumers, 10% for agriculture, 9% on cases concerning alignment of legislation. In 2003, 86 cases against a Member State were concluded, 77 of which finding that the State had breached its obligations.
As for the Court of First Instance, most cases concluded concern staff (32%), followed by intellectual property (14%), and competition (12%), according to Hatto Kaefer.