[ParlTrack]

Draft Regulation
Recital 2 a (new)

(2a) The transfer to the General Court of a part of the competence to examine requests for preliminary ruling should enable the Court of Justice to allocate more time and resources to the examination of more complex and sensitive requests for preliminary ruling. In this context, and as the Court of Justice is increasingly required to rule on matters of a constitutional nature and related to human rights and the Charter of Fundamental rights, transparency and openness of the judicial process should be strengthened. To this regard, the Statute should be modified to ensure that all documents deposited with the Registrar by the parties or by any third party in connection with an application shall be accessible to the public in accordance with arrangements and exceptions set out in the Statute and the Rules of Procedure. This is in line with the principle of open decision-making. Transparency increases accountability and builds trust in the European Union and in European law.

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

René REPASI

Draft Regulation
Recital 8 a (new)

(8a) A request for a preliminary ruling comes exclusively within a specific area laid down in the Statute, if the questions referred to the Court relate solely to the secondary and tertiary legal acts of this specific area. A request that also includes questions relating to other areas or raising questions of interpretation of the Treaties, public international law, general principles of law or the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union that cannot be separated from those that exclusively relate to specific areas laid down in the Statute without rendering the answer to the latter type of questions meaningless for the referring court are considered to come within the specific areas laid down in the Statute. Such requests shall be transferred to the General Court. Where questions relating to other areas or raising questions of interpretation of the Treaties, public international law, general principles of law or the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, can be separated from those that exclusively relate to specific areas laid down in the Statute, the Court of Justice shall remain competent to deal with this request. With a view to give guidance to referring courts, the Court of Justice shall update its ‘Recommendations to national courts and tribunals in relation to the initiation of preliminary ruling procedures’ 1a with concrete examples of cases that come within the specific areas laid down in the Statute and those that come outside of it. _________________ 1a OJ C 380, 8.11.2019, p. 1.

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

René REPASI

Draft Regulation
Recital 8 b (new)

(8b) Decisions to transmit a request to the General Court shall be taken by the President of the Court of Justice after having consulted with the President of the General Court, the Vice-President and the First Advocate General. In cases of doubt whether a request also includes separable questions that concern other areas or raise autonomous questions of interpretation of the Treaties, public international law, general principles of law or the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the President of the Court of Justice shall refer the request to the general meeting of all Judges and Advocate Generals for a decision on the transfer of jurisdiction to the General Court.

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

René REPASI

Draft Regulation
Recital 8 c (new)

(8c) With a view to ensure the transparency of the decisions to transmit a request to the General Court in cases of doubt, the Court shall motivate and publish its decision to transmit such requests to the General Court. The decision can also be motivated and published as a part of the order or judgment given by the Court of Justice.

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

René REPASI

Draft Regulation
Recital 9

(9) In order to provide the national courts and the interested persons referred to in Article 23 of the Statute with the same guarantees as those provided by the Court of Justice, the General Court is to adopt procedural rules equivalent to those applied by the Court of Justice when dealing with requests for a preliminary ruling, in particular as regards the designation of an Advocate General. The Advocate General at the General Court for dealing with preliminary reference must be permanent, elected from amongst the Judges that do not belong to a chamber that is designated to deal with preliminary references for a period of at least three years with a possibility of re-election.

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

René REPASI

Draft Regulation
Recital 14

(14) Second, it is necessary to extend the abovementioned mechanism to disputes relating to the performance of contracts containing an arbitration clause, within the meaning of Article 272 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Those disputes require the General Court merely to apply to the substance of the dispute the national law to which the arbitration clause refers and thus do not raise, in principle, issues that are significant with respect to the unity, consistency or development of Union law.deleted

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

René REPASI, Patrick BREYER

Draft Regulation
Recital 14 a (new)

(14a) With a view to strengthen the preliminary rulings transferred to the General Court, the preliminary reference procedure should be opened for objective third party interventions (amicus curiae briefs) that assist the Court in interpreting and applying the law. Such third party interventions are objective so that they do not need to support the form of the order sought by one of the parties. In order to prevent abuses and limit the workload for the General Court, objective amicus curiae briefs should need to be submitted by legal persons that are non-profit and representative in the European Union. Representativeness should require to be active in at least four Member States. Such legal persons should need to show that the objectives that these persons pursue according to their statute is connected to the matter of the case, in which they intend submit amicus curiae briefs. Such mechanism would also lead to a greater consideration of views from the civil society. Opening the preliminary reference procedure for amicus curiae briefs at the General Court would also require an equal opening of the preliminary reference procedure at the Court of Justice. The Court should adopt detailed guidelines on the acceptance, transmission, and custody of amicus curiae briefs.

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

Patrick BREYER, René REPASI

Draft Regulation
Article -1 (new)

Article -1 The following Article is inserted into Protocol No 3 on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘the Statute’): ‘Article 20a All documents deposited with the Registrar by the parties or by any third party in connection with an application shall be accessible to the public in accordance with arrangements set out in the Rules of Procedure unless the President, for the reasons set out in the following paragraph, decides otherwise, either of his or her own motion or at the request of a party or any other person concerned. Public access to a document or to any part of it may be restricted in order to observe rights guaranteed by primary law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, such as the protection of personal data, the right to private and family right and communications and the protection of professional secrecy. Any request for confidentiality must include reasons and specify whether it is requested that all or part of the documents be inaccessible to the public.’

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

René REPASI

Draft Regulation
Article 1 a (new)

Protocol No 3 on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union
Article 23 – paragraph 2

Article 1a Article 23, paragraph 2, of the Statute is replaced by the following: ‘Within two months of this notification, the parties, the Member States, the Commission, the European Parliament and, where appropriate, the institution, body, office or agency which adopted the act the validity or interpretation of which is in dispute, shall be entitled to submit statements of case or written observations to the Court.’

2023/07/06
Committee: JURI

René REPASI