Peers repeat call for more judges at CJEU

A lack of judges at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is causing delays, adding to the backlog of cases in Luxembourg and threatening the quality of justice, a Lords sub-committee has warned.

The number of cases pending has grown from 768 in 2008, to 799 in 2010 and 886 in 2012, a report for the European justice, institutions and consumer protection sub-committee found.

"We hope that the reforms that are being undertaken by the court will have an impact on the workload of the CJEU," peers said.

"However, we are sceptical. It is imperative that the right balance is struck between the length of time it takes for the court to dispense with a case and the quality of its judgments in order to preserve its credibility."

Peers said it was too early "to state categorically" whether the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty was having a significant impact of the workload of the court. However, the report warned that this should be kept under review "with a view to reacting before the workload has an adverse effect on the effectiveness and efficiency of the court".

The sub-committee said advocates general played an important role in the delivery of justice by the CJEU.

"There should be enough of them to enable opinions to be produced for all the cases that require it. The consequences of not having sufficient AGs could be serious".

The Lords sub-committee said the government should support the court's proposal to increase the number of advocates general "with a view to meeting the court's timetable to appoint the first AG in July 2013 to coincide with Croatia's accession".

Lord Brownlow, chairman of the sub-committee, called on the government to support the court's request to increase the number of advocates general to three and in particular the number of judges in the General Court.

The report on the CJEU's workload is a follow-up to the first one, published in April 2011, which called for an increase by a third in the number of General Court judges.