General Court (European Union)

The Court of the European Union (CFI, before the Treaty of Lisbon Court of First Instance or short GEI ) is an independent European Court, which is subordinate to the European Court of Justice. The official designation in the European treaties is short court.

The court was originally created by the Decision 88/591/ECSC, EEC, Euratom of 24 October 1988 discharge of the European Court of Justice, based in Luxembourg and currently consists of 28 judges. Each Member State is represented by at least one judge.

Composition

Judges are appointed by a unanimous decision of the Governments of the Member States, after consultation in accordance with Article 255 of the TFEU constituted expert committee for a six-year term, which corresponds to a de facto Council of the European Union unanimous decision. The court sitting in front of a president, who is elected from among the judges.

Unlike the European Court of Justice (ECJ ), there is no standing before the Court Advocates-General. This activity can, however, be exercised by a judge designated for that purpose.

With the creation of a two-tier court court system was created at the European level. Against all decisions of the tribunal may at the European Court of Justice on points of law to be inserted, comparable to the revision in German law.

The Court did not decide in contrast to the European Court usually in the plenary of all the judges, but by saying body (chambers) that are occupied each responsible for specific areas of law or of three or five judges. In certain cases, may also decide a single judge. In particularly important cases can also be the Grand Chamber or the House days. Since the Treaty of Nice, there is also the possibility to relieve the Court of specialized courts ( in the Treaty of Nice called Judicial Panels ) to set up, which in turn are subordinate to the court.

See also: List of judges at the Court of the European Union

Jurisdiction

The court shall decide all direct actions of citizens that are provided in the court system of the European Union. For actions of Member States and institutions of the European Union 256 TFEU under Art in conjunction with Article 51 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court directly responsible in the first instance.

Judgments

Before the European Court of First Instance approximately 5,824 cases were from 1989 to 2005 and brought before it does 4,791.