What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Changed:13. Notes with satisfaction that 2022 marked the 70-year70 year anniversary of the CJEU,CJEU which constitutedconstitutes a very important anniversary for the entire Union; applauds that the CJEU used the opportunity to launch initiatives under the theme ‘Bringing justice closer to the citizen’, including the new initiative of offering a streaming service for hearings on the Curia website;

Added:15 Notes that the number of cases brought before the two courts in 2022 is comparable to that of the previous year (1 710 cases in 2022 as compared to 1 720 in 2021) and underlines that, together, the Court of Justice and the General Court were able to complete 1 666 cases in 2022, compared to 1 723 in 2021, which corresponds to the average in recent years (1 692 cases per year between 2018 and 2021); notes, however, that the total number of pending cases is increasing, with 2 585 cases pending in 2022 compared to 2 541 in 2021;

Changed:18.19. Notes that, in the replies to the questionnaire from Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control that formed part of the present discharge procedure, the CJEU mentions that the internal audits gave rise to many recommendations which have been welcomed by the relevant services andservices; asks that Parliament be informed if recommendations from the internal auditor are not followed up by the relevant services;

Changed:20.21. Notes with concern that the Court of Justice and the General Court continue to have a very unbalanced gender composition and that of the eight new Judges taking office in the General Court in 2022, five were men and three were women; reiterates its appreciation of the letter from the President of the General Court to the President of the Conference of the Representatives of the Member States in 2021, calling for Member States to take the need for gender balance into account when nominating candidates for the replacement of Judges; regrets that the letter has remained unanswered;

Changed:22.23. Notes that, at the end of 2022, the CJEU employed 2253 members of staff, a slight increase from 2 247 members of staff at the end of 2021 and 2 239 at the end of 2020; notes that the overall gender distribution at the end of 2022 was 893 men, equivalent to 40 %, and 1 360 women, equivalent to 60 %; notes, furthermore, that the overall distribution among the categories of staff was 1 300 officials (58 %), 774 temporary agents (34 %),%) and 179 contract agents (8 %), which represents a small decline in the percentage of members of staff that are officials as compared to 2021, mirrored by a small increase in the percentage that are temporary agents and no change with respect to contract agents;

Changed:24.25. Welcomes that all Union nationalities are represented on the staff of the CJEU; notesnotes, however, with regret that nationals from some Member States are overrepresented; notes in this regard that French nationals constitute 505 out of the 2 253 staff members, equivalent to 22 %, and that the overrepresentation is significantlyeven highhigher among ASTs,assistants (ASTs), where they constitute 223 out of 719 members of staff, equivalent to 31 %; notes that Belgian nationals and Italians are overrepresented at the administrator (AD) level with 108 and 97 staff out of 1 274 respectively; notes also that Cyprus is the most underrepresented country with only 2 nationals in official and temporary agent AD positions and lacks any nationals in AST and assistant-secretarial (AST-SC) positions; notes, that the CJEU should strive for more balanced representation of Union nationals across all the positions and aim to guarantee an adequate geographical distribution;

Removed:25. Welcomes the work done in the High Level Interinstitutional Group on enhancing the attractiveness of Luxembourg for staff; encourages the CJEU to continue working with the other Luxembourg-based institutions on different actions, including the idea of introducing a special housing allowance to offset the high rental felt especially by staff on lower grades and the possibility of offering reasonably priced temporary housing for short stays; asks that Parliament be updated on the progress of all such initiatives;

Added:26. Encourages the CJEU to support a multilingual working environment; remarks that even though according to the Rules of Procedure of the European Court of Justice, Chapter 8, Article 36, the language of a case can be any Union language (Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish or Swedish), the daily administrative work is nonetheless done 90 % in French; encourages the other two working languages of the European Union, namely German and English, to be used more frequently on a daily basis in the daily administrative work of the CJEU to encourage multilingualism and in order to make employment more accessible to nationals of all member states, including those where French is not offered in schools; notes that this would also help contribute to more equal distribution of nationalities among staff of the CJEU, calls on all institutions to guarantee multilingualism;

Removed:26. Notes that the CJEU, on 1 May 2022, introduced a new teleworking scheme providing the possibility of working from home two days per week; notes, furthermore, that the scheme allows staff to work up to 10 days per year from outside the place of employment, and that a survey among managers showed global satisfaction with this possibility, which has proven compatible with the proper functioning of the services;

Added:27. Welcomes the work done in the High Level Interinstitutional Group on enhancing the attractiveness of Luxembourg for staff; encourages the CJEU to continue working with the other Luxembourg-based institutions on different actions, including the idea of introducing a special housing allowance to offset the high rental felt especially by staff on lower grades and to ensure that the CJEU staff benefit from suitable arrangements for their living conditions; asks that Parliament be updated on the progress of all such initiatives;

Changed:28.30. Notes with concern that 46 members of staff reported exhaustion for work-related reasons while the medical services of the CJEU estimates that in 2022 there were 23 cases where members of staff showed symptoms that could be associated with a diagnosis of burnout; notes that the CJEU has offered training courses for managers in order to raise awareness about the different risks related to burnout and about staff well-being; encouragescalls on the CJEU to maintain focus on this problemproblem, to further consider how burnout can be prevented and to take all the necessary measures to ensure the wellbeing of its staff in order to bring the number of cases associated with burnout down; suggests the CJEU and other institutions establish a comments box where staff can leave comments ensuring that staff will not be subject to retaliation; urges that the content of such a comments box be taken seriously and analysed in order to help identify and ameliorate sources of burnout;

Removed:29. Notes with appreciation that the CJEU is offering training courses to foster and encourage diversity within its services; notes, furthermore, that the CJEU has 27 members of staff with a disability, out of whom 14 are considered to have a severe disability; appreciates that, during 2022, there has been significant follow-up to an internal audit from 2021, in order to guarantee the rights of people with disabilities;

Added:31. Encourages the human resource department to be more aware of the consequences and symptoms of long COVID, other viral sicknesses and autoimmune diseases; urges for the health insurance provided by CJEU and all other Union institutions to financially cover the therapies needed to treat those conditions;

Removed:30. Notes that the CJEU welcomed 267 trainees during 2022; notes with appreciation that as of autumn 2022, the CJEU decided to remunerate all trainees except those that receive a grant from other sources;

Added:32. Notes that one administrative enquiry concerning a case that may amount to sexual harassment was launched in 2023, concerning facts that took place in 2022, is currently ongoing;

Changed:31.36. Continues to appreciate the reforms made in 2021 concerning the members of the Court of Justice and of the General Court concerning their code of conduct and the declarations of interest,interest which together with the new requirements for the curriculum vitae of the members represents an improvement in the transparency of the CJEU; is, nevertheless, of the opinion that the validity and usefulness of the declarations of interest wouldcould be improved through some kind of verification and quality control;

Changed:32.37. Welcomes that, since 2018, the CJEU has published a list of the external activities carried out by the members of both the Court of Justice and the General Court; notes that the list is difficult to read for the general public and couldrecommends bethat it is made more informative by including information about the nature of the external activity; stresses that the members are expected to devote themselves fully to the performance of their duties at the CJEU and that they can only carry out external activities that are related to the performance of their duties and subject to prior authorisation being granted and only in the event that such activities are compatible with the requirements of the code of conduct and, in particular, with the obligation to be available for judicial activities;

Changed:33.38. Notes the decision from 2021 concerning members’ travel, missions and use of drivers and cars, which implies that members will have to cover all the running costs for the use of a vehicle not covered by a mission order above 10 000 km; is, however,is of the opinion that 10 000 km is too high and that all running costs, including the rentuse of a vehicle, should be covered by members when the vehicle is usedcar forfleet privateoutside purposes;of notesthe thatstrict aperformance similarof system,the appliesduties toof the usemembers of the carCJEU fleetshould ofnot thetake Courtplace ofunder Auditors;any invitescircumstance; calls on all Union institutions to agree on a single system to be applied horizontally,horizontally which would reduce the confusion and increase transparency and efficiency in the use of public money;

Changed:34.39. Welcomes the fact that the CJEU is training all newcomers on all ethical aspects as well as on the rights and obligations of officials and agents as set out in the Staff Regulations, also covering whistleblowing, prohibition of harassment, prevention of conflicts of interest and other ethical issues; also welcomes the organisation of six training courses entitled ‘Rules of Good Conduct’ with the participation of 70 staff members and 11 training courses entitled ‘Internal control’ with the participation 80 staff members; encourages the CJEU to make one ‘Rule of Good Conduct’ training course a requirement for all staff, whether old or new, to encourage a safe and productive workspace and ethical handling of cases;

Changed:35.40. Notes with satisfaction that no new investigations involving the CJEU were opened by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in 2022 but that one investigation, which is dealing with the conduct of staff that may constitute a serious failure to comply with their obligations, is still ongoing, and that four cases handled by the European Ombudsman concerning the CJEU found no maladministration, meaning that no recommendations were issued by the European Ombudsman with regard to the CJEU in 2022; notes that there were no cases of whistleblowing in the CJEU in 2022, and, finally, notes with satisfaction that no new cases of conflicts of interest were detected in 2022;

Changed:36.41. Regrets strongly that the new code of conduct for members of staff, which was originally expected to be finalised by the end of 2021, was still not finalised by the end of 2022; notes that the CJEUnew code of conduct was expected to adoptbe adopted by the end of 2023 but it is still in the adoption process; calls on the Court to finalise and adopt a new code of conduct bywith theno enddelay, ofin 2023line with requests from previous discharge cycles, and asks that Parliament be informed about its adoption and its content as soon as possible;

Changed:37.42. NotesWelcomes that no conflicts of interest were detected in 2022; notes that 112 requests under Article 16 of the Staff Regulations concerning professional activities after leaving the service were examined and that all were approved; notes, furthermore, that nine cases of outside activity during leave of absence for personal reasons were declared and that all were approved; considers that that area could potentially be examined by the internal auditor;auditor or the proposed EU Ethics Body;

Changed:38.43. Welcomes that the CJEU sped up the implementation of an integrated case management system (SIGA), which will allow it to work on an entirely digital, secure and integrated workflowworkflow, and welcomes that the CJEU progressed with the implementation of the HAN/Ares program concerning all administrative services of the CJEU; asks the CJEU to keep Parliament updated on such implementation as part of the annual discharge procedure;

Removed:39. Notes that no further enquiries by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) were communicated in 2022; awaits with interest the decision concerning the investigation from early 2021 concerning the use of third part web services;

Added:44. Appreciates that the CJEU decided to no longer use cloud platforms for sensitive judicial data processed in order to protect the data and system ownership with the aim of hosting all its data on site and not having a business critical dependency with any external systems; further welcomes the CJEU’s policy to avoid the use of any tool or infrastructure hosted in the cloud for the purpose of handling non-public information in order to protect personal data and keep a complete control of its systems and data;

Removed:40. Welcomes that the CJEU is considering how and to what extend modern technologies should be used in its work, for example to identify similarities between cases, for translation, for speech to text conversion and for automatised summaries of long documents; underlines that, in particular for a legal institution like the CJEU, automatised processes will always need to be supplemented with human oversight and control;

Added:45. Notes with satisfaction the upward trend of the use rate of e-Curia with 94 % of lodgements before the General Court being made via e-Curia in 2022, compared to 93 % in 2021, and the use rate of e-Curia at the Court of Justice being approximately 87 % of all lodgements made this way in 2022, compared to 85 % in 2021;

Changed:45.54. Notes with interest that an internal audit has been carried out concerning accessibility of the buildings for people with a disability and that the CJEU, following new Luxembourgish legislation, are implementing appropriate measures; welcomes that those measures include making courtrooms accessible for people with reduced mobility, such as tactile paving and handrails; asks that Parliament be kept informed about further initiatives in this area;

Changed:46.55. Highly appreciates that the CJEU is producing a separate annual report related to the environmental footprint of the institution,institution which could serve as a model for other institutions;

Changed:50.59. Welcomes that the CJEU has a wide range of service level agreements with other Union institutions,institutions which helps reduce costs for the institutions involved and ensures that similar procedures, techniques and work flows are used across the institutions; appreciates in particular the service level agreements with the Commission’s Office for the Management and Payment of Individual Entitlements and the service level agreement with the Commision’s Directorate General for Digital Services as a service provider hosting CJEU’s information systems including eCuria, Cvria portal and others; also acknowledges the continued cooperation within the Interinstitutional Committee for Translation and Interpretation; welcomes finally that a new service level agreement was signed with the Publications Office of the European Union in 2023 after negotiations in 2022 which covers all the aspects of the collaboration for the first time;

Added:63. Encourages the CJEU to share the number of intellectual property cases and the specific points of dispute with the Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office to explore reasons why 30 % of concerned actions in the General Court in 2022 were relating to intellectual property, with the goal of assisting in identifying possible gaps in Union legislative acts; considers that the Union budget could be spared handling those cases if a specific point of dispute could be identified and solved by a new Union legislative act;

Added:64. Acknowledges the pursuit of the activities carried out by the Judicial Network of the European Union which contributes to fostering and facilitating the cooperation between the CJEU and the national courts, particularly in the fields of judicial monitoring, legal research, multilingual terminology and emerging technologies, as well as to promoting the pooling of the most efficient practices in the administration of justice;

Changed:55.66. Welcomes that the CJEU has used its 70-year70 year anniversary as an opportunity to strengthen its transparency and its communication with Union citizens and to organise two open days with the possibility for citizens to ask questions on-site; encourages the CJEU to consider following up on these initiatives also in the coming years;

Changed:56.67. Notes with appreciation that, in 2022, the CJEU started a streaming service of thete case hearings assigned to the Grand Chamber, providing the public with an opportunity to have a better understanding of how the CJEU works; encourages the CJEU to widen this initiative to ensure more transparency;

Removed:57. Welcomes that an initiative offering remote visits to the CJEU was launched in 2022 after the pilot phase was completed in 2021, giving young people between the ages of 15 and 18 an understanding of the CJEU and the impact of case-law on their daily lives and increasing their understanding of their rights as Union citizens and of the democratic values of the Union;

Added:68. Welcomes that the CJEU actively participates in the EU Voice project launched by EDPS to interact with the public and which intends to promote the use of decentralised, free and open source social networks, as an alternative to propriety ones;

Removed:58. Notes that the CJEU, together with several other Union institutions, actively participate in a project launched by the EDPS with regular publications on the Mastodon social media; notes that the CJEU also uses the X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn platforms, and that the CJEU intends to continue a former practice of publishing on both the X (formerly Twitter) and Mastodon platforms when a technical solution allowing for an automated parallel publication has been found.

Added:69. Is of the view that, as the Court of Justice is increasingly required to rule on matters of a constitutional nature and related to human rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, transparency and openness of the Union judicial process should be strengthened; in this regard welcomes the setting up of a streaming system for hearings of the Court of Justice which serves to strengthen the CJEU’s ‘Citizen Court’ dimension through increased accessibility for the general public; stresses in this regard that the new streaming system needs to be gradually supplemented by additional external means of communication that will allow for greater visibility of the work of the institution;