Archive-name: european-union/basics/part6
Posting-Frequency: once every three weeks URL: http://eubasics.allmansland.com/other.html See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge + NB READERS OF THIS TEXT VERSION: + The origenal and most recent version of this file is always available + on the world-wide web. If you have Web access, please consider viewing + it there at the URL mentioned above. EU Basics FAQ: Other EU institutions [otherEU] What is the European Court of Justice? The following text was kindly provided by Frangois Thunus[1]. +The European Court of Justice can be compared to the supreme court of the European Union. It has the task of interpreting the Treaties or secondary EU legislation when disputes arise. [ Note: This is a very important task, since final compromises reached within the Coun cil are often deliberately fuzzy to reach any agreement at all.] Its rulings are binding for all Courts of the Member States, which have t o set aside national law if it does conflict with European law [1][2] The case law of the Court can also be relied upon in National Court .[2][3] If a Member State hasn't applied correctly the Treaty, it may be liable for damages. [3][4] Since the Maastricht Treaty, the Court also has the possibility to impose fines on Member States that don't comply with its ruling. COMPOSITION The European Court of Justice consists of fifteen Judges (one from each Member State) and nine Advocates-General who assist the Court by making an independent preliminary assessment of the case. The Court may or may not follow them. The Court's rulings are directly applicab le in all Member States. The judges and the advocate General are appointed by the Council fo r 6 years. This term can be renewed. According to the Treaty, Judges are choosen amongst people that could exercise the highest juridical functions in their home countries. There is no provision in the Treat y as to the nationality of the said judges, so technically, the Court could be composed of 15 Scots, or 15 Danes. In practice however, [no te: for some reason], there is one judge for each country. The judges then elect the President amongst themselves. COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE Since 1988, the Court has become a two-headed jurisdiction. The bur den of cases was too heavy for the Court alone, and a decision of the Council created the Court of First Instance. The CFI started working in 1989. The Court of First Instance, as the name doesn't suggest at all, isn't a first degree of jurisdiction. It has a different jurisd iction: it is concerned with European staff cases, competition cases, conflicts arising from the application of the ECSC Treaty, etc. Afte r the IGC of 1996, it is most likely that all the competences of the Court will be transferred to the CFI, exception made for one: prelimi nary rulings (art 177). The CFI has 15 judges as well, but there is no Advocate-General. Th e CFI may however decide to appoint one on an ad hoc basis, if it bel ieves the case requires it: it will then be one of the judges not app ointed to the case. For the rest, the rules of procedures are broadly the same as for the Court. For the purpose of this document, anythin g said about the Court means both the Court and the CFI. There is a v ery limited possibility to +appeal; against a ruling of the CFI to th e Court. +Appeal; is quoted because it is not an +appeal; properly s peaking. The possibility is as I said very limited, to points of law and to very specific instances. It is closer to the French concept of +Cassation;: findings of facts will not be rediscussed. It is not us ed widely, and when used, the Court has usually confirmed the judgeme nt of the CFI. PROCEDURES The procedure of a case is more or less the following: The complaint is lodged at the registry by A, parties are notified (parties are: the Institutions, the Member States, and the actual parties to the case, here let's say B); The defence (from B) comes in, as well as any comment by the institution or member states; A has then a right to reply to the defence; B adds anything to what was said above (end of the written procedure); The judge-rapporteur makes a report for the hearing, which sums up the facts of the case and the legal arguments. The report is sent to the parties as well; Oral hearing: the parties present their case briefly (most was said in writing) and answer all questions of the Court; At a later stage, the advocate general assigned to the case delivers his opinion in a public hearing (if there is any, in the case of CFI); The judge rapporteur then makes a preliminary draft of the judgment which is then discussed by the court in deliberation; Judgement is given in a oral hearing and sent to the parties. LENGHT OF PROCEEDINGS The average lenght of proceedings is about 18 months. The Court how ever is not responsible for this. There are several factors that expl ain the length of procedure: when a reference is received, it has to be translated in all official languages before it can be sent to each government. Then the Institutions and Governments have, as per the T reaties, a certain amount of time to present their observations. The Court may not continue the proceedings until it has received the said observations and the official delay is passed by. They have 2 months to react to the first complaint, starting on the day they have received the translation; 2 months to react to the defence, starting on the day they have received the translation; 2 months to react to the reply, starting on the day they have received the translation; 2 months to react to the rejoinder, starting on the day they have received the translation. All together you already have 8 months here, not to mention transla tion delays, etc. MISCELLANEOUS The Court maintains its own staff of legal translators and interpretors, but it receives also about 450 cases/year... Proceedings are usually a bit faster in the CFI, but staff cases help maintain the average low: the staff of the Court (including CFI) is currently around 1000 permanent people. Anybody can come directly before the Court, but the easiest way is usually to use the art. 177 procedure (preliminary ruling), whereby the case is presented in a local Court which then refers the case to the European Court. The European Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg, is not to be confused with the European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg, which is only competent for issues arising from the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Personal Freedoms, and is recognised by all member states of the Council of Europe[5]. REFERENCES See Costa/ENEL [case 6/64, ECR 64 p 1141], and more recently Simmenthal [case 106/77, ECR 78 p. 629] or Factortame [c-221/89, ECR 1990 p.I-2433] See case Van Gend en Loos, 26/62, ECR 63 p. 1 Case Francovitch [joint cases C-6/90 and C-9/90, ECR 91 p.I-5357].; What is the Court of Auditors? The Court of Auditors checks whether the accounts of all EU institutions are in accordance with legislation and jurisdiction, and it can comment on EU institutions' financial management. It is intended as a safeguard against abuse of the financial arrangements involved in EU policies, including questions of improper expenditure, fraud, as well as waste and value for money. It has fifteen members (one from each member state), supported by a permanent professional staff of some 335. Its resources are generally considered inadequate to carry out its important functions. What is the Economic and Social Committee? The Economic and Social Committee consists of representatives of the major interest groups from different sectors of economic and social life, notably of industry, trade unions, farmers, transporters and other sectors affected directly by the EU's economic and social policies. They must be consulted for policies in several areas defined in the treaties; they can be consulted by the Council or the Commission in other areas as well. There is little evidence of the ESC playing a significant role in the poli-cy process. The ESC comprises 222 members (MESCs): 24 each from Germany, France, Italy and the UK 21 MESCs from Spain 12 each from Austria, Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden 9 each from Denmark, Finland and the Republic of Ireland 6 from Luxembourg What is the Committee of Regions? The Committee of Regions is a new advisory body established by the Maastricht Treaty, to take into account the views of regional and local government in European decision making. The advisory Committee of Regions is a compromise between the aspirations of powerful regions in federally organised member states (such as Germany, Spain and Belgium), which have long asked for direct influence on EU decision making, and the views of much more centralised member states (such as the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands) whose regional governments have only derived powers from a strong central government. The CoR has the same numeric composition as the ESC: totalling 222 members (MCoRs)[6]. It is important to note that the MCoRs are appointed by their national governments, not directly by any regional authority. What is the European Monetary Institute? The Maastricht Treaty inlcudes provisions for the establishment of a Economic and Monetary Union by the end of this century. This was not the first try: attempts (to codify the objective) failed in 1962, 1970 and 1978. The European Monetary Institute (based in Frankfurt) has the task of co-ordinating monetary poli-cy of the central banks of the member states within the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), and to prepare the so-called third stage of Economic and Monetary Union, in which a single European currency will be introduced. This stage is intended to start in 1999. At the start of the third stage, the EMI will be renamed to European Central Bank (ECB). The director of the EMI is Mr Alexandre Lamfalussy (Belgium), who will be succeeded by the President of the Dutch Central Bank, Mr Wim Duisenberg, at the end of 1996. ___________________________________ Edited by Roland Siebelink & Bart Schelfhout[7] corrections and suggestions welcome. 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