Discharge 2024: General budget of the EU - Court of Justice of the European Union

The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Registrar of the Court of Justice in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Court of Justice of the European Union for the financial year 2024, Section IV - Court of Justice of the European Union.

In its resolution, adopted by 526 votes to 79 with 47 abstentions, Parliament made the following observations:

Budgetary and financial management

The budget allocated for the CJEU in 2024 amounted to EUR 503 837 531, which represented an increase of 3.66 % compared to 2023. This increase was mainly related to salary adjustments forecasted for 2024. The overall provisional implementation rate of the budget at the end of 2024 was 97.72%. Its mission budget for members and staff of the CJEU decreased for a second year in a row, from EUR 638 000 in 2023 to EUR 616 000 in 2024, representing a decrease of approximately 3.44 %.

Internal management, performance and internal control

A political agreement with Parliament and Council was reached at the end of 2023 in view of the amendment to the Statute of the CJEU and with a view to improving the functioning of the CJEU against the background of a steady increase in the caseload and in the complexity and sensitive nature of questions raised.

Other observations

Parliament noted that:

- 920 new cases were submitted to the Court of Justice in 2024 (compared to 821 in 2023), out of which 62.30 % were references for preliminary rulings and 277 were appeals against decisions of the General Court. The General Court saw a major decrease in the number of new cases, from 1 271 in 2023 to 786 in 2024;

- the Court of Justice closed 863 cases in 2024, compared to 783 in 2023, and the General Court closed 922 in 2024 compared to 904 cases in 2023;

- the average duration of proceedings for the cases closed by the Court of Justice was 17.7 months in 2024 compared to 16.1 months in 2023. This was due to the complexity and voluminosity of some files;

- the occupation rate decreased slightly from 97.11 % in 2023 to 96.70 % in 2024 and the annual turnover of staff decreased from 6.54 % in 2023 to 6.32 % in 2024, with 41 % of staff departures being pension related;

- the gender composition of the Court of Justice and the General Court continues to be very unbalanced;

- the new code of conduct for officials and other servants of the CJEU was adopted in March 2024. It includes provisions on conflict of interests, duty of loyalty, duty of confidentiality and discretion, outside activities, occupational activities after leaving the service and publications, provisions against harassment;

- in 2024, compared to 2023, the budget expenditure decreased by 9 % for IT projects and by 69 % for cybersecurity projects, while it increased by 16 % for IT equipment, and 2 % for cybersecurity services, licences and equipment;

- the budgetary savings achieved through cooperation with other institutions and in particular the shared applications and hosting services based on service-level agreements with the Commission as well as the participation in interinstitutional procurement procedures, which have allowed the CJEU to optimise costs and resources.