Justice, structural increase in litigation. Especially at the EU Court

Brussels – Rulings, appeals, referrals, requests for clarification on the interpretation and implementation of common rules: the EU General Court and the European Court of Justice are increasingly inundated with litigation, risking to clog up and flood Europe’s justice machine risks with consequences that seem inevitable. The judicial statistics for 2023 “confirm the structural increase in litigation, particularly before the Court,” warns the EU institution in Luxembourg. Between 2014 and 2018, the Court of Justice received an average of 723 cases per year, while between 2019 and 2023 this average stood at 833, an average increase of 15 percent (110 cases per year). In terms of the number of cases handled, the General Court and the Court were able to settle
1,687 cases in 2023, which is slightly higher than the average for previous years (1,667 cases per year between 2019 and 2022).

Both branches crossed the 2,000-case threshold crossed in 2023. Considering the two levels of European justice, the number of pending cases, i.e., those awaiting a verdict or final judgment, also increased. From 2019 to 2023, the number of pending files saw a broadly constant rise, with a slight reduction between 2020 and 2021 but an increase from 2,500 cases to 2,990.

To ‘clog’ courtrooms and offices were especially in Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania. Judges from these countries, in particular, have increased the number of submissions. Even though in 2023, German (94), Bulgarian (51), Polish (48), Italian (43), Romanian (40), Spanish (32), and Belgian (30) judges were among the most active to have submitted the greatest number of referrals for preliminary rulings to the Court of Justice. In Luxembourg, however, they point out that during the past year, courts “from all member states, without exception, addressed the Court of Justice, which testifies to the vitality of the ‘court-to-court’ dialogue.”

So far, the increase in litigation has not had much effect, but only because they have already rushed to increase the number of judges. For this reason, the Judiciary’s report points out, the Court of has been ensured to “maintain at a satisfactory level of the duration of proceedings (18.2 months on average) due to efficient case management and the effects of the doubling of the number of judges.” Considering also appeals to the Court, the average duration of proceedings, overall, stood at 16.1 months.”

The litigation brought before the Court”is characterized, for example, by sensitive issues such as safeguarding the values of the rule of law in the context of national judicial reforms, asylum and immigration policy, the protection of personal data and the application of competition rules in the digital age, the fight against discrimination or, again, environmental, energy and climate issues,” the body’s president, Koen Lenaerts, explains.

In terms of the subjects of litigation before the Tribunal, there has been an increase, in particular, in the area of intellectual property (310 cases in 2023 versus 270 in 2022) and the area of economic and monetary policy, including, notably, banking law (56 new cases brought in 2023). In addition, increasingly fueling the Court’s operation are restrictive measures.

In particular, sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia are leading to appeals by the various people affected by the 13 different packages launched by the Union. For the most part (41 out of 63 cases), the new cases falling under this heading concern the series of restrictive measures adopted by the EU in 2022 against natural and legal persons in the context of the conflict between Russia and
Ukraine.