2003 discharge: EC general budget, Court of Justice

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Alexander STUBB (EPP-ED, FI) granting the Registrar of the Court of Justice discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget for the 2003 financial year. (Please see the summary of 17/03/2005.) The European Court of Justice (ECJ) administered a budget of EUR 150 599 614, of which 99.34 % had been committed and 93.32 % spent by 31 December 2003.

Parliament is concerned about the growing backlog of cases in 2003, although initial indicative figures for 2004 show, with regard to the Court of Justice, a slight improvement. The cases at the Court of Justice mainly concerned environment and consumer law, agriculture, approximation of laws, social policy and taxation.  Cases lasted on average two years.

With regard to the Court of First Instance, the main cases covered included actions for annulment, staff cases and intellectual property. Cases lasted on average a year and a half.

Parliament expects the ECJ to set performance targets and to establish action plans to achieve them, with a view to reducing the time span needed to bring pending cases to a conclusion in the years to come.