What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Change 19

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;

Change 20

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;

Digitalisation, cybersecurity and data protection

Change 21

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;

Change 22

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;

Removed:41. Welcomes the CJEU’s engagement in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools in its work and that a comprehensive strategy concerning AI was adopted in July 2023; underlines that it is of vital importance that AI is used in a manner which fully preserves the independence, the quality and the serenity of the legal processes and is in full consideration of ethical matters; welcomes that the CJEU has created an AI board in charge of addressing ethical aspects and setting clear boundaries for the use of AI; expects that staff guidelines on the use of AI to were adopted by the end of Autumn 2023 and asks that Parliament be kept informed about the content of these guidelines;

Added:46. 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 and the obligation to make available the essence of a joint controller agreement; also awaits with interest the decision on the investigation regarding the use of cloud services provided by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft under Cloud II contracts by Union institutions, bodies and agencies;

Removed:42. Notes with concern that the CJEU reports that the number of cyberattacks continued to grow in 2022; welcomes at the same time that the CJEU is actively participating in the relevant interinstitutional Union structures in order to strengthen the overall cybersecurity of Union institutions;

Added:47. Welcomes that the CJEU is considering how and to what extend digital 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 accessed with regard to ethical aspects and supplemented with human oversight and control; highlights the importance of being able to cross-reference cases by key terms and key indicators in order to find overlaps or patterns in case content; also encourages the CJEU to look into possibilities to better transmit information to judges and their teams;

Removed:43. Appreciates that the CJEU analysed the open data possibilities in 2022 and 2023 and that the CJEU intends to share all the published information available on its website as open data;

Added:48. Welcomes that the CJEU employs open-source operating systems in roughly one third of its server base and that its first choice is to rely on internal hosted systems, based on open source technology, as it allows the CJEU to maintain technical control of its systems and control the data storage and data flows, thus ensuring a better data protection and privacy; encourages the CJEU to join the open-source initiative launched by the EDPS via its implementation of Nextcloud open source solutions;

Added:49. Calls on the CJEU to make available on its website all the files related to a case after the ruling is published while ensuring the non-divulgation of private or sensitive information in order to protect personal data;

Added:50. Welcomes the CJEU’s engagement in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools in its work and that a comprehensive strategy concerning AI was adopted in July 2023; underlines that it is of vital importance that AI is used in a manner which fully preserves the independence, the quality and the serenity of the legal processes, is in full consideration of ethical matters and is used under human oversight and allowing human intervention in order to avoid negative consequences or risks, or stop the system if it does not perform as intended; welcomes that the CJEU has created an AI board in charge of addressing ethical aspects and setting clear boundaries for the use of AI; reminds that the CJEU should ensure full user control, in compliance with the European Ethical Charter on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in judicial systems and their environment; expects that staff guidelines on the use of AI were adopted by the end of autumn 2023, as indicated, and asks that Parliament be kept informed about the content of these guidelines;

Added:51. Notes with concern that the CJEU reports that the number of cyberattacks continued to grow in 2022; is relieved that, despite their variety and volume, all attacks were handled by the protection systems in place or by the dedicated team for incident response at the CJEU, according to answers provided to the CJEU to questions posed by Parliament-s Committee on Budgetary Control in October 2023; welcomes at the same time that the CJEU is actively participating in the relevant interinstitutional Union structures in order to strengthen the overall cybersecurity of Union institutions; strongly urges the management of CJEU to keep strengthening cybersecurity a priority, urges management to proactively look into what aspect of the IT infrastructure makes CJEU vulnerable to attacks and to correct this as soon as possible, and to ensure regular audits and tests of its cyber defences;

Added:52. Notes that the CJEU analysed the open data possibilities in 2022 and 2023 and that the CJEU intends to share all the published information available on its website as open data; however cautions the CJEU to have screeners before making published information available as open data, taking security, confidentiality, privacy rights and intellectual property rights into account;

Buildings

53. Notes with interest that the CJEU has set up a working group with representation from different parts of CJEU and its staff committee to reflect on the optimisation of the occupancy of the premises of the CJEU and that its conclusions were delivered in 2023; asks that Parliament is kept informed about the implementation of those conclusions and the consequences for the organisation of the workspace;

Change 23

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;

Environment and sustainability

Change 24

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;

4 unchanged paragraphs

56. Congratulates the CJEU on the results achieved in terms of significantly reducing its general consumption in 2022 compared to the base year 2015; finds it especially impressive that heating was reduced by 23,6 %, paper by 42,6 %, canteen waste by 49,9 % and greenhouse gas emissions by 31,7 %;

57. Notes that the CJEU has had solar panels installed covering 3 447,8 m2, which produced 452 959 kWh in 2022; encourages the CJEU to continue working on identifying possibilities regarding the reduction of general consumption, recycling and the generation of renewable energy;

58. Welcomes that the CJEU has taken several initiatives to support and increase sustainable mobility, including subsidies for public transportation, subsidies for self-service bicycles, improved bike parking facilities and improved facilities for hybrid and electrical cars;

Interinstitutional cooperation

Change 25

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;

60. Notes with appreciation that the CJEU, together with all other Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, have entered into a joint procurement for the supply of accident insurance as referred to in Article 73 of the Staff Regulations;

61. Welcomes the fact that cooperation with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has been developed further and that a memorandum of understanding has been signed in order to create in-depth cooperation regarding bibliographic and documentary services for the benefit of both institutions; welcomes further that specific training has been proposed to EPPO prosecutors to enable them to familiarise themselves with the activities of the CJEU;

62. Appreciates that the CJEU fully cooperates with OLAF, the Court of Auditors, the EDPS and the European Ombudsman, including by ensuring its internal decisions on OLAF investigations are updated in order to ensure compliance with the latest requirements;

Change 26

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;

Communication

65. Notes that, in 2022, the budget for communications, covering content preparation and printing of internal and external publications was EUR 527 500, equivalent to an increase of 3,3 % from 2021;

Change 27

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;

Change 28

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;

Change 29

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;

Added:70. 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; encourages the CJEU to expand those remote visits targeted towards youth to people between the ages of 15 and 29; further encourages the CJEU to also offer remote visits to citizens of all ages, emphasizes that remote visits should be as accessible as possible to all Europeans;

Added:71. 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 decentralised social media using a free and open-source software; notes that the CJEU also uses the X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn platforms, and that the CJEU continued its former practice of publishing on both the X (formerly Twitter) and Mastodon platforms as soon as a technical solution allowing for an automated parallel publication was found; encourages the CJEU to post regularly where it has a presence on a social media platform to avoid stagnant social media accounts as that risks giving the impression of inactivity in the daily work of the CJEU.