Synopsis of the work of the Court of Justice and tl1e Court of First Instance of tl1e European C~otntnunities itl 1990 artd record of fortnal sittings in 1990 Luxembourg, 1991 Court of Justice of the European Communities L-2925 Luxembourg Telephone: 4303-1 Telex (Registry): 2510 CURIA LU Telex (Information Service): 2771 CJ INfO LU Telegraphic address: CURIA Tclcfax (Court): 4303-2600 Telefax (Information Service): 4303-2500 Court of first Instance of the European Communities Rue du Fort-Nicdcrgriincwald L-2925 Luxembourg Telephone: 4303-1 Telex (Registry): 60216 CURIA LU Tclcfax (Court): 4303-2100 Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1992 ISBN 92-829-0221-8 11~ ECSC-EEC-EAEC, Luxembourg, 1992 Reproduction is authorized, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Bcl~i!un Synopsis of the work of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance of the European Cotntnunities in 1990 Foreword This synopsis of the work of the Court of Justice of the European Communities and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities will from now on be published in a 'streamlined' form. As has been the case with synopses for previous years, the 1990 synopsis is intended for judges, lawyers and practitioners, as well as teachers and students of Community law. It is issued for information only, and obviously must not be cited as an official publication of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance, whose judgments are published only in the Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance (ECR). The synopsis is published in the official languages of the European Communities (Spanish, Danish, German, Greek, English, French, Italian, Dutch and Portu­ guese). It is obtainable free of charge on request (specifying the language required) from the Offices of the Commission of the European Communities whose addresses are listed on page 73. 5 Contents Page Section I - The Court of Justice of the European Communities A - Review of the 1990 judicial year 13 B - Composition of the Court of Justice 17 I - Order of precedence in the Court of Justice from 7 October 1990 . 18 II - The Members of the Court of Justice . 19 III - Composition of the Chambers from 7 October 1990 24 IV - Changes in the composition of the Court during 1990 24 C - The administrative departments of the Court 25 Staff numbers . 25 The budget . 26 Administrative aspects of the Court's activities in 1990 27 Abridged organization chart . 29 Section II - The Court of First Instance of the European Communities A - Review of the 1990 judicial year 35 B - Composition of the Court of First Instance 39 I - Order of precedence in the Court of First Instance from 1 September 1990 . 40 II - The Members of the Court of First Instance . 41 III- Composition of the Chambers for the judicial year 1990-91 44 Section III - Acth•ities of the two Courts A - Meetings and visits . 49 Official visits to the Court in 1990 . 52 Study visits to the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance during 1990 54 B - Formal sittings . 55 Formal sitting of the Court of Justice of 29 March 1990 55 7 C - Publications and general information 65 I - Texts of judgments and opinions 65 II - Other publications 66 III - Information and addresses . 71 Annex: Statistical information for I 990 A - Proceedings of the Court of Justice . 79 I - Chronological list of judgments delivered 79 II - Statistical information . 98 13 - Proceedings of the Court of First Instance 123 I Chronological list of judgments delivered 123 II - Statistical information 129 C - Statistics relating to the two Courts in 1990 135 D - Decisions of national courts on Community law 137 8 The Court of Justice of the European Communities (~:) liT Lux, 1991) Overall view of the building complex project Estimated date of completion: 1995 Contents Page A - Review of the 1990 judicial year 13 B - Composition of the the Court of Justice 17 I - Order of precedence in the Court of Justice from 7 October 1990 . 18 II - The Members of the Court of Justice . 19 III - Composition of the Chambers from 7 October 1990 . 24 IV - Changes in the composition of the Court during 1990 24 C - The administrative departments of the Court 25 Staff numbers . 25 The budget . 26 Administrative aspects of the Court's activities in 1990 27 Data processing . 27 Reports of Cases before the Court 27 Office accommodation 28 Abridged organization chart . 29 11 A - Review of the 1990 judicial year Case-law of the Court During 1990, the Court of Justice of the European Communities delivered 193 judgments, 73 of which related to direct actions, 113 to references for a preliminary ruling and seven to cases involving Community officials. The President of the Court or the Presidents of Chambers were also required to decide on 12 applications for interim measures. In the case of direct actions, these judgments were delivered on average 25.5 months following the introduction of the application, and 17.4 months following receipt of the order of reference in the case of references for a preliminary ruling. The duration of proceedings in cases involving Community officials was approximately 25 months. A total of 302 cases were decided, the majority (227) by way of judgment and the remainder (75) by way of an order terminating the proceedings. At the end of 1990, cases pending before the Court totalled 583. The trend in cases brought before the Court In 1990, 384 new cases were brought before the Court of Justice; these consisted of 222 direct actions, 141 references for a preliminary ruling, 16 appeals brought against decisions of the Court of First Instance, and five sets of special proceedings. This quantitative stability (385 new cases brought in 1989), however, is only superficial. If account is taken, in particular, of direct actions (205 in 1989) and references for a preliminary ruling ( 139 in 1989), and of the fact that staff cases, inter alia, now come under the jurisdiction of the Court of First Instance, there has been no real change in the rate of increase in the Court's workload. General pattern of the case-law The Court was required in 1990 to deliver decisions on practically all aspects of Community Jaw. In terms of quantity, agriculture, with 51 judgments, was the most significant area of activity, followed by the free movement of goods (36 judgments), the free 13 movement of persons (27 judgments), taxation (13 judgments), common commer­ cial policy (12 judgments), social policy (II judgments), the environment (9 judg­ ments) and State aid (8 judgments). In addition to the above, the areas of the law governing the institutions (4 judgments), company law (3 judgments) and external relations (2 judgments) also provided the Court in 1990 with an opportunity to resolve questions of a constitutional nature and of major economic importance which enabled it to continue to play a constructive role in the process of European integration. Thus, in the area of agriculture, mention ought to be made of the judgments of II December 1990 in Cases C-189/89 (Spag[) and C-217/89 (Pastiittcr), delivered following references for preliminary rulings by the f<'inanzgericht (finance Court), Munich. In its decisions, the Court annulled several provisions of Council Regulation No 857 /84/EEC and thereby removed the restrictions on milk production which had been imposed, following the introduction of the system of additional milk levies, on producers involved in the earlier scheme of premiums for non-marketing or conversion, by reason precisely of their undertakings in that regard. A reference for a preliminary ruling by the Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation) of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg gave the Court of Justice an opportunity to highlight the close connections between free movement of goods and the protection of and provision of information to the consumer. The question in that case related to a complaint by a company which operated supermarkets in Belgium and which had been prohibited by a Luxembourg Court from distributing within the Grand Duchy publicity leaflets, on the ground that such leaflets contained offers for sale at reduced prices with a reference to the previous price, something which was legal in Belgium but which contravened Luxembourg legislation on unfair competition. In its judgment of 7 March 1990 in Case C-362/88 (GB-INNO), the Court held that, since Community law on consumer protection treated the access of consum­ ers to information as one of its primary requirements, Article 30 of the EEC Treaty could not be interpreted as meaning that national legislation which denied consumers access to certain information could be justified by mandatory require­ ments relating to consumer protection. In the area of social policy, the judgment of 17 May 1990 in Case C-262/88 (Barber) resolved doubts as to the application of Article 119 of the EEC Treaty to pensions paid by private occupational pension funds, as well as doubts on the admissibility of exceptions to the principle of equal treatment of male and female workers in this area. In its ruling on questions referred by the Court of Appeal in London, the Court of Justice held that the compensation granted to a worker on being declared redundant, as well as the pensions paid by private pension funds, came within the 14 scope of Article 119 of the EEC Treaty and that consequently it was contrary to that article for a man made compulsorily redundant to be entitled to claim only a deferred pension payable at the normal retirement age when a woman in the same position was entitled to an immediate retirement pension as a result of the application of an age condition that varied according to sex in the same way as was provided for by the national statutory pension scheme.