Breaking point in Luxembourg

The 2010 Annual Report of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) paints a bleak reality for two of its three courts—the Court of Justice and the General Court.

In 2010, the number of cases brought before the Court of Justice was the highest in its history. For several reasons, including the impact of the Lisbon Treaty, the number of new cases will continue to increase in the years to come. As a consequence, the court is facing an imminent workload crisis.

The General Court is already overloaded. In 2010, the average duration of proceedings before the General Court was nearly 25 months and the number of new cases continued to exceed that of completed cases. In contrast, the third legal arena of the CJEU, the Civil Service Tribunal, is a success story—even if the latest figures for 2010 reveal a slight deterioration in its performance.

In the light of the forthcoming (Court of Justice) or existing (General Court) workload crisis, the recent publication