Annual Report 2006
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QDAG07001ENC ISSN 1680-8304 ANNUAL REPORT 2006 COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Annual Report 2006 COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES EN 00_2006_4572_cover_EN.indd 1 12-04-2007 16:29:24 COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2006 Synopsis of the Work of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, the Court of First Instance of the European Communities and the European Union Civil Service Tribunal Luxembourg 2007 www.curia.europa.eu 01_2006_4572_txt_EN.indd 1 12-04-2007 16:03:18 Court of Justice of the European Communities L-2925 Luxembourg Telephone: (352) 43 03-1 Telex (Registry): 2510 CURIA LU Fax (Court of Justice): (352) 43 03-2600 Court of First Instance of the European Communities L-2925 Luxembourg Telephone: (352) 43 03-1 Fax (Court of First Instance): (352) 43 03-2100 European Union Civil Service Tribunal L-2925 Luxembourg Telephone: (352) 43 03-1 Fax (Press and Information Division): (352) 43 03-2500 Fax (Internal Services Division — Publications Section): (352) 43 03-2650 Internet: http://www.curia.europa.eu Completed on: 31 December 2006 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. The photographs may be reproduced only in the context of this publication. For any other use, authorisation must be sought from the Oce for Ocial Publications of the European Communities. A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Oce for Ocial Publications of the European Communities, 2007 ISBN 92-829-0844-5 © European Communities, 2007 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Italy PRINTED ON WHITE CHLORINE-FREE PAPER 01_2006_4572_txt_EN.indd 2 12-04-2007 16:03:18 Contents Court of Justice Contents Page Foreword, by Mr Vassilios Skouris, President of the Court of Justice ........................................ 5 Chapter I The Court of Justice of the European Communities A — The Court of Justice in 2006: changes and proceedings .................................................. 9 B — Composition of the Court of Justice ....................................................................................... 51 1. Members of the Court of Justice ........................................................................................ 53 2. Changes in the composition of the Court of Justice in 2006 .................................. 71 3. Order of precedence .............................................................................................................. 73 4. Former Members of the Court of Justice ........................................................................ 75 C — Statistics concerning the judicial activity of the Court of Justice ................................ 77 Chapter II The Court of First Instance of the European Communities A — Proceedings of the Court of First Instance in 2006 ........................................................ 107 B — Composition of the Court of First Instance ....................................................................... 153 1. Members of the Court of First Instance ........................................................................ 155 2. Changes in the composition of the Court of First Instance in 2006 ................... 165 3. Order of precedence ........................................................................................................... 167 4. Former Members of the Court of First Instance ........................................................ 169 C — Statistics concerning the judicial activity of the Court of First Instance ................ 171 Annual Report 2006 3 01_2006_4572_txt_EN.indd 3 12-04-2007 16:03:18 Court of Justice Contents Chapter III The European Union Civil Service Tribunal A — Proceedings of the Civil Service Tribunal in 2006 ........................................................... 195 B — Composition of the Civil Service Tribunal ......................................................................... 201 1. Members of the Civil Service Tribunal .......................................................................... 203 2. Order of precedence ........................................................................................................... 207 C — Statistics concerning the judicial activity of the Civil Service Tribunal ................... 209 Chapter IV Meetings and visits A — Ocial visits and events at the Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance and the Civil Service Tribunal ................................................................................................. 219 B — Study visits .................................................................................................................................... 223 C — Formal sittings ............................................................................................................................. 227 D — Visits and participation in ocial functions ..................................................................... 229 Abridged organisational chart ............................................................................................................ 235 Contact details for the Court of Justice .............................................................................................. 237 4 Annual Report 2006 01_2006_4572_txt_EN.indd 4 12-04-2007 16:03:18 Foreword In the year which has just drawn to a close, discussion began with a view to the adoption, in the not too distant future, of a new type of procedure. The procedure is intended to deal expeditiously with references for a preliminary ruling on provisions adopted relating to the area of freedom, security and justice, and might be called ‘the emergency preliminary ruling procedure’. Certain references for a preliminary ruling in this rapidly developing eld will need to be handled with particular expedition, whether because of their sensitive nature or because of very strict time limits laid down by the Community legislation. Since the current procedural framework is not suited to meeting such needs, only a new type of procedure is capable of providing the necessary guarantees of eciency. Also, 2006 was marked by the partial renewal of the membership of the Court, entailing the departure of six of its members. When the new appointments were made, the Governments of the Member States were concerned to safeguard the stability of the institution, thereby enabling it to continue smoothly in the performance of its task. The Court cannot but welcome this. This Report contains a full record of changes aecting the institution and of its work in 2006. As usual, a substantial part of the Report is devoted to succinct but exhaustive accounts of the main judicial activity of the Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance and the Civil Service Tribunal, accompanied by statistics. V. Skouris President of the Court of Justice Annual Report 2006 5 01_2006_4572_txt_EN.indd 5 12-04-2007 16:03:18 01_2006_4572_txt_EN.indd 6 12-04-2007 16:03:18 01_2006_4572_txt_EN.indd 8 12-04-2007 16:03:19 Proceedings Court of Justice A — The Court of Justice in 2006: changes and proceedings By Mr Vassilios Skouris, President of the Court of Justice This part of the Annual Report gives an overview of the activity of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in 2006. It describes, rst, how the institution evolved during that year, with the emphasis on the institutional changes aecting the Court and developments relating to its internal organisation and working methods (Section 1). It includes, second, an analysis of the statistics in relation to developments in the Court’s workload and the average duration of proceedings (Section 2). It presents, third, as each year, the main developments in the case-law, arranged by subject-matter (Section 3). 1. The main development in 2006 for the Court as an institution was constituted by the adoption of preparatory measures for the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria and of Romania on 1 January 2007 (Section 1.1). The past year was also the rst in which the Civil Service Tribunal operated (Section 1.2), and a legislative process was embarked upon to establish a procedure for the expeditious and appropriate handling of references for preliminary rulings concerning the area of freedom, security and justice (Section 1.3). 1.1. A year and a half after the enlargement in 2004 when 20 new judges were welcomed to the institution, the Court of Justice had to commence preparations for the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria and of Romania on 1 January 2007. In January 2006 an ad hoc working group was set up in order to identify the needs of the various departments and to ensure coordination of all the preparatory work at administrative level. In addition, from 1 July 2006, members of sta were recruited to work in the two new language units in the Translation Directorate. As regards the organisation of judicial work, the Court decided, in view of the forthcoming accession of the Republic of Bulgaria and of Romania, to create an additional chamber of ve judges and an additional chamber of three judges. The Court now has four ve-judge chambers (the First, Second, Third and Fourth Chambers) and four three-judge chambers (the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Chambers). Each ve-judge chamber is composed of six judges, and each three-judge chamber of ve judges, who sit in rotation