Skip to content
EU Parl Watch

opinion parliamentary committee draft, 21 September 2023

On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget on the 2022 discharge: General budget of the EU - Court of Justice of the European Union

Document JURI-PA-753556 · (2023/2132(DEC))

Committee on Legal Affairs · Rapporteur: Adrián Vázquez Lázara

On Parliament’s site PDF Word

AI:In short

The Committee on Legal Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgets to include its suggestions in the resolution on the 2022 discharge for the Court of Justice of the European Union's budget. It welcomes the high use of 2022 appropriations, the shorter proceedings before the General Court, the streaming of hearings, the improved annual report, progress on the case management system and the high use of e-Curia. It notes that the budget is mostly administrative, that proceedings before the Court of Justice stayed similar in length, that case numbers were comparable to 2021, and that women hold 40% of managerial posts.

Position. The Committee on Legal Affairs proposes that the Committee on Budgets incorporate its suggestions into the discharge resolution, welcoming the Court's budget use, case management and digital tools, and noting its administrative spending and case lengths.

Key points

  1. The Committee on Legal Affairs asks the Committee on Budgets to incorporate its suggestions into the discharge resolution.
  2. It appreciates the 98.4% use of final appropriations for 2022, similar to 98.7% in 2021 and 99% in 2020.
  3. It stresses that the Court's budget is essentially administrative, with around 75% for Members and staff and almost all the rest for buildings and IT.
  4. It notes that average proceedings before the Court of Justice stayed similar (16.4 months in 2022, 16.6 months in 2021).
  5. It welcomes the fall in average proceedings before the General Court to 16.2 months in 2022 from 17.3 months in 2021.
  6. It notes 1 710 cases brought in 2022 against 1 720 in 2021, and 1 666 cases completed in 2022 against 1 723 in 2021.
  7. It acknowledges the work of the Judicial Network of the European Union in cooperation, judicial monitoring, legal research, multilingual terminology and emerging technologies.
  8. It welcomes the streaming system for Court of Justice hearings, which increases public accessibility.
  9. It appreciates the makeover of the Court's Annual Report to improve transparency and visibility.
  10. It notes with satisfaction progress on the Integrated Case Management System (SIGA), which will replace many applications and allow more automation.
  11. It notes with satisfaction the rise in e-Curia use: 94% of lodgements before the General Court and about 87% at the Court of Justice in 2022.
  12. It welcomes the proportion of women in managerial posts remaining at 40% in 2022, as in 2021.

Who is affected

  • The Committee on Budgets, which is asked to include the suggestions in its discharge resolution.
  • The Court of Justice of the European Union, whose 2022 budget implementation is assessed.

Figures and deadlines

  • 98.4% — use of final appropriations for 2022.
  • 98.7% for 2021 and 99% for 2020 — earlier use of final appropriations.
  • around 75% — share of appropriations for Members and staff.
  • 16.4 months in 2022 and 16.6 months in 2021 — average proceedings before the Court of Justice.
  • 16.2 months in 2022 and 17.3 months in 2021 — average proceedings before the General Court.
  • 1 710 cases in 2022 and 1 720 in 2021 — cases brought; 1 666 completed in 2022 and 1 723 in 2021.
  • 94% in 2022 and 93% in 2021 — e-Curia lodgements before the General Court; about 87% in 2022 and 85% in 2021 at the Court of Justice.
  • 40% in 2022 and 2021 — women in managerial posts.

Written by AI from the full text · every figure comes from the text · ¶ opens the paragraph · 25 Sept 2026 · Report a problem

Full text

Suggestions 12 paragraphs

The Committee on Legal Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

1. Appreciates the high rate of use of the final appropriations for 2022 (98.4 %), as in previous years (98.7% for 2021 and 99% for 2020);

2. Stresses that the budget of the CJEU is essentially administrative, with around 75% of the appropriations related to expenditure for Members and staff, and almost all of the rest related to expenditure for buildings and IT;

3. Notes that the average length of proceedings for cases completed before the Court of Justice remained similar to that of the previous year (16.4 months in 2022, 16.6 months in 2021);

4. Welcomes the fact that the average length of proceedings for cases completed before the General Court has decreased to 16.2 months in 2022 (17.3 months in 2021);

5. 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 against 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 ( 1 723 in 2021), which corresponds to the average in recent years (1 692 cases per year between 2018 and 2021);

6. 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;

7. 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;

8. Appreciates the makeover of the CJEU’s Annual Report with a view of improving transparency and giving better visibility of its activities;

9. Notes with satisfaction the advances in the development of the CJEU’s Integrated Case Management System (SIGA) which will replace a large number of applications currently in use, thus offering the possibility of greater optimisation and automation of the various stages of case processing;

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

11. Welcomes the fact that the proportion of women in managerial posts remains at a high level (40% in 2022 as in 2021), confirming the global upward trend recorded since 2018 (41% in 2020, 39% in 2019 and 37.5% in 2018).