EU: ECJ to Transfer Jurisdiction to General Court

Sept 6, 2024 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is overburdened with work. For years, it has had to deal with numerous preliminary ruling requests. That is why, as of October, the General Court will take over responsibility for preliminary rulings in six specific areas.

The litigation which ends before the ECJ is becoming increasingly complex and sensitive. This is why a reform of the EU’s court system has been in the pipeline for some time.

The aim of the reform is to reduce the workload of the ECJ in the area of preliminary rulings and to enable it to continue to fulfil its task of ensuring the observance of the law in the application and interpretation of the Treaties within reasonable time limits.

In future, the following six areas will fall on the General Court in the following six areas:

1. The common system of value-added tax;
2. excise duties;
3. the Customs Code;
4. the tariff classification of goods under the Combined Nomenclature;
5. compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding or of delay or cancellation of transport services;
6. the system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading.

These areas rarely give rise to questions of principle likely to affect the unity or consistency of Union law. There is already a substantial body of ECJ case law on these issues, which should enable the General Court to draw on judgements from previous rulings. These areas account for about 20% of requests for a preliminary rulings submitted to the Court of Justice, which is a sufficiently high number of cases to make a real difference in the Court’s workload.

For reasons of legal certainty and expedition, all requests for a preliminary ruling must be submitted to the Court of Justice so that it can examine whether the request falls exclusively within one or more of the specific areas of law defined.

Press release of the ECJ no. 125/24 (12 August 2002)