Luxembourg court releases productivity statistics

The institution as a whole

The statistics show that 2015 was marked by the exceptional rate of the institution’s judicial activity.

A total of 1,711 cases were brought in the past year before the three courts comprising the institution. This is the highest annual number of cases brought in the institution’s history. It is the Court of Justice, in particular, that this increase concerns, as the symbolic threshold of 700 cases brought before it was passed for the first time. In addition, with 1,755 cases completed in 2015, the institution’s annual productivity is at an unprecedented level.

The institution welcomes that development, in which it sees an expression of the confidence placed in it by national courts and litigants. It is also very pleased, in this context, that the EU legislative authorities adopted the reform of its judicial structure at the end of a legislative process that began in 2011.

This reform will enable it, by virtue of the number of judges of the General Court being doubled in a three-stage process extending until 2019, to continue to deal with the increase in the number of cases and to fulfil its task in the interests of European litigants while meeting the objectives of quality and efficiency of justice. That structural reform was accompanied by the drawing up of new Rules of Procedure for the General Court, which entered into force on 1 July 2015 and will strengthen the General Court’s capacity to deal with cases within a reasonable period and in compliance with the requirements of a fair hearing.

The Court of Justice

The statistics concerning the Court of Justice’s activity in 2015 reveal, overall, sustained productivity and efficiency but, above all, an unremitting upward trend in the number of cases.

The 713 cases brought in 2015 constitute an absolute record in the Court’s history. This exceptional figure, representing an increase of nearly 15 per cent compared with 2014 (622), can be explained by the combined effect of the significant growth in the number of appeals (215 appeals, that is to say, roughly double the number in 2014 (111) and the highest figure in the Court’s history) and the very high number of requests made to the Court for a preliminary ruling (436, that is to say, a figure second only to that in 2013 (450)).

The Court completed 616 cases in 2015, which amounts to an overall decrease compared with 2014 (719), a decrease which is attributable in part to the lower number of cases that were brought in 2014 (622) and, therefore, in a state enabling them to be decided in 2015. There were 884 cases pending on 31 December 2015, which constitutes an increase compared with the situation at the end of 2014 (787) but corresponds exactly to the situation on 31 December 2013 and, within two cases, to that on 31 December 2012 (886).

So far as concerns the duration of proceedings in 2015, the statistics are very positive. The average time taken to deal with references for a preliminary ruling was 15.3 months, very close to the record figure (15.0 months) in 2014. In the case of direct actions, the average time in 2015 was 17.6 months, which amounts to a significant reduction compared with the preceding years (between 19.7 months and 24.3 months in the period from 2011 to 2014). The average time taken to deal with appeals in 2015 was 14 months, which is the lowest average in recent years.

The General Court

2015 will remain a key year in the history of the General Court. Reaping all the benefits of the reforms undertaken for the last few years and of the unstinting efforts of its personnel, the Court attained an exceptional level of productivity with unchanged resources. The results attained exceeded expectations as the Court completed 987 cases in 2015, that is to say, an increase of nearly 90 per cent compared with 2010 (when 527 cases were completed) and of more than 20 per cent compared with 2014, when a record had however already been achieved (814 cases completed).

The number of new cases confirms the general upward trend that has been observed since the Court’s creation. In 2015, 831 cases were brought, that is to say, an inrush of cases close to the record number in 2014 (912 cases). The average number of new cases per year between 2013 and 2015 is thus 40 per cent above the average number between 2008 and 2010.

The jump in productivity was nevertheless such that the Court succeeded in reducing the number of cases pending before it to a significant extent (from 1 423 in 2014 to 1 267 in 2015, that is to say, a decrease of more than 10 per cent). Last, among the fundamental indicators of the Court’s activity, it should also be noted that the appreciable reduction, beginning in 2013, of the average duration of proceedings continued (a fall from 23.4 months in 2014 to 20.6 months in 2015, that is to say, of more than 10 per cent).

The Civil Service Tribunal

The statistics for 2015 show a slight increase in the number of cases brought (167) compared with the previous year (157), while the number of cases completed remained identical.

The number of pending cases was 231 on 31 December 2015 compared with 216 in 2014. However, it should be noted that over the last two years the Tribunal has had to stay proceedings in a large number of cases pending decisions of the General Court. The average duration of proceedings (not including any stay of proceedings) fell from 12.7 months in 2014 to 12.1 months in 2015 (as against 14.7 months in 2013).