Commencement of proceedings before the Court and the written procedure

· In references for preliminary rulings

The national court submits questions to the Court of Justice about the interpretation or validity of a provision of European Union law, generally in the form of a judicial decision in accordance with national procedural rules. When that request has been translated into all the European Union languages by the Court's translation service, the Registry notifies it to the parties to the national proceedings, and also to all the Member States and the institutions of the European Union. A notice is published in the Official Journal of the European Union stating, inter alia, the names of the parties to the proceedings and the content of the questions. The parties, the Member States and the institutions have two months within which to submit written observations to the Court of Justice.

· In direct actions

An action before the Court must be brought by application addressed to the Registry. The Registrar publishes a notice of the action in the Official Journal, setting out the applicant's claims and arguments. At the same time, the application is served on the party sued, who has one month within which to lodge a defence. The applicant may lodge a reply and the defendant a rejoinder, the time allowed being one month in each instance. The time-limits for lodging these documents must be complied with unless an extension is granted by the President.
In both types of action, a Judge-Rapporteur and an Advocate General, responsible for monitoring the progress of the case, are appointed by the President and the First Advocate General respectively.

Preparatory inquiries and the report for the hearing

In all proceedings, once the written procedure is closed, the parties are asked to state, within one month, whether and why they wish a hearing to be held. The Court decides, after reading the report of the Judge-Rapporteur and hearing the views of the Advocate General, whether any preparatory inquiries are needed, what type of formation the case should be assigned to, and whether a hearing should be held for oral argument, for which the President will fix the date. The Judge-Rapporteur summarises, in a report for the hearing, the facts alleged and the arguments of the parties and any interveners. The report is made public in the language of the case at the hearing.

The public hearing and the Advocate General's opinion

The case is argued at a public hearing, before the bench and the Advocate General. The Judges and the Advocate General may put to the parties any questions they consider appropriate. Some weeks later, the Advocate General delivers his or her Opinion before the Court of Justice, again in open court. He or she analyses in detail the legal aspects of the case and suggests completely independently to the Court of Justice the response which he or she considers should be given to the problem raised. This marks the end of the oral stage of the proceedings. If it is decided that the case raises no new question of law, the Court may decide, after hearing the Advocate General, to give judgment without an Opinion.

Judgments

The Judges deliberate on the basis of a draft judgment drawn up by the Judge-Rapporteur. Each Judge of the formation concerned may propose changes. Decisions of the Court of Justice are taken by majority and no record is made public of any dissenting opinions. Judgments are signed by all the Judges who took part in the deliberation and their operative part is pronounced in open court. Judgments and the Opinions of the Advocates General are available on the CURIA Internet site on the day they are delivered. They are, in most cases, subsequently published in the European Court Reports.

Special forms of procedure

· The simplified procedure

Where a question referred for a preliminary ruling is identical to a question on which the Court has already been called on to rule, or where the answer to the question admits of no reasonable doubt or may be clearly deduced from existing case-law, the Court may, after hearing the Advocate General, give its decision by reasoned order, citing in particular a previous judgment relating to that question or the relevant case-law.

· The expedited procedure

The expedited procedure enables the Court to give its rulings quickly in very urgent cases by reducing the time-limits as far as possible and giving such cases absolute priority. On application by one of the parties, the President of the Court may decide, on a proposal from the Judge-Rapporteur, and after hearing the Advocate General and the other parties, whether the particular urgency of the case requires the use of the expedited procedure. Such a procedure can also be used for references for preliminary rulings. In that case, the application is made by the national court seeking the preliminary ruling and must set out in the application the circumstances establishing that a ruling on the question put to the Court is a matter of exceptional urgency.

· Applications for interim measures

Applications for interim measures seek suspension of the operation of measures which an institution has adopted and which form the subject-matter of an action, or any other interim order necessary to prevent serious and irreparable damage to a party.

The costs of proceedings

There are no court fees for proceedings before the Court of Justice. On the other hand, the Court does not meet the fees and expenses of the lawyer entitled to practice before a court of a Member State by whom the parties must be represented. However, a party unable to meet all or part of the costs of the proceedings may, without having to instruct a lawyer, apply for legal aid. The application must be accompanied by all necessary evidence establishing that party's lack of means.

Language arrangements

In direct actions, the language used in the application (which may be one of the 23 official languages of the European Union) will be the ‘language of the case', that is to say the language in which the proceedings will be conducted. With references for preliminary rulings, the language of the case is that of the national court which made the reference to the Court of Justice. Oral proceedings at hearings are interpreted simultaneously, as required, into various official languages of the European Union. The Judges deliberate, without interpreters, in a common language which, traditionally, is French.

Flowchart of procedure