15 Statute of the Court of Justice
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12464/03
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| Draft Council Decision amending the Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice to lay down the conditions and limits for review by the Court of Justice of decisions delivered by the Court of First Instance.
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| Legal base | Article 245 (2) EC and Article 160 (2) EAEC Treaty; consultation; unanimity
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| Document originated | 12 September 2003
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| Deposited in Parliament | 7 October 2003
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| Department | Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 20 October 2003
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | No date fixed
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| Committee's assessment | Legally and politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
15.1 The Treaty of Nice amended Article 225 of the EC Treaty by
inserting a new Article 225a to provide for the creation of 'judicial
panels' to hear and determine at first instance certain classes
of action or proceeding brought in specific areas. Article 225
EC was further amended by provision for the Court of First Instance
(CFI) to hear applications for a preliminary ruling under Article
234 EC, and appeals from a 'judicial panel'. Further appeals to
the Court of Justice (ECJ) in such cases were to be permitted
subject to limits laid down in the Statute of the Court of Justice
'where there is a serious risk of the unity or consistency of
Community law being affected'.
The document
15.2 This draft Council Decision amends the Statute of the ECJ
annexed to the Treaty on European Union, the EC Treaty and the
EURATOM Treaty. It incorporates into the Statute the amended provisions
for the review procedure provided for in Article 225(2) and (3)
EC. Article 225 EC provides that all decisions by the CFI given
on appeal from judicial panels and all CFI decisions under that
Court's future preliminary references jurisdiction may exceptionally
be subject to review by the ECJ where there is a serious risk
of the unity and consistency of Community law being affected.
Declaration 13 at the Nice Summit by the Conference of the Representatives
of the Governments of the Member States provides that the Statute
should also specify the role of the parties in the review procedure,
in order to safeguard their rights; the effect of the review procedure
on the enforceability of the decision of the CFI; and the effect
of the ECJ decision on the dispute between the parties.
15.3 The draft Decision to amend the Statute provides
for incorporation into the Statute both of the amendments to Article
225(2) and (3) and for the insertion of three new Articles, 62a-c,
which implement the requirements of Declaration 13. Article 62a
establishes that neither a proposal nor a decision to review a
CFI judgement shall have any automatic suspensory effect on that
judgment, but it preserves the power of the ECJ to suspend and
to grant interim measures set out in Articles 242 and 243 EC as
it sees fit.
15.4 Article 62b grants the parties to the case the
right to submit written observations within a time limit fixed
by the Court. Member States and Community Institutions may also
submit written observations. The Court may decide whether to
conduct an oral hearing.
15.5 Article 62c provides that the CFI judgment is
to be regarded as definitive if the ECJ decides it has no impact
on the unity or consistency of Community law. If the ECJ does
consider there is such an effect, the ECJ remits the case to the
CFI for re-consideration in the light of the ECJ's ruling. The
only exception is where the final judgment on the case is evident
from the results of the ECJ's review, in which case there is no
need to send the case back to the CFI and the ECJ's ruling becomes
the final determination. In the case of a review of a preliminary
reference decision, the response of the ECJ to the questions which
were the subject of the review is substituted for that of the
CFI.
The Government's view
15.6 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 20 October
2003 the Minister for Europe (Mr Denis MacShane) explains the
intention of the proposed measure and expresses his general and
unqualified support , as follows:
"The Government supports this proposal which
would set out the detailed provisions governing review by the
ECJ of decisions of the CFI, as agreed at Nice. It is expected
that this review procedure would only be required in exceptional
cases."
Conclusion
15.7 We thank the Minister for his detailed summary
of the proposed measure. We share the Government's support for
it and have no questions to ask. Accordingly we clear the document.
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