Amending the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EU: Reform of the preliminary reference procedure and extension of the leave to appeal requirement [EU Legislation in Progress]

Written by Rafał Mańko (1st edition).

On 30 November 2022, the President of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), Koen Lenaerts, submitted to Parliament and Council a proposal on behalf of the CJEU to amend Protocol No 3 on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). The legal basis for the proposal is the second paragraph of Article 281 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, according to which the Parliament and the Council may, on the CJEU’s or the Commission’s initiative and following the ordinary legislative procedure, amend the CJEU Statute.

The proposal has two main objectives. First, it seeks to transfer jurisdiction on preliminary rulings from the Court of Justice (ECJ) to the General Court (GC) in five specific areas: the common VAT system; excise duties; the Customs Code and the tariff classification of goods under the Combined Nomenclature; passengers’ rights to compensation and assistance; and the greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading scheme. Second, it would extend the requirement for leave (permission) to appeal from the GC to the ECJ, enabling the ECJ to ‘filter’ incoming cases.

In the European Parliament, the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) is responsible for the file. The rapporteur’s draft report was adopted by JURI on 19 September and the committee’s decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations was announced in plenary on 2 October. The ‘quadrilogue’ negotiations on the file (Parliament, Council, CJEU and Commission) began on 4 October 2023.

Versions

• October 2023: Amending the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EU (1st edition)