Reform of the Preliminary Ruling Procedure in the EU Court System

In 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union announced a new stage of reform of its system. In the face of an increase in the number of cases under consideration it is designed to maintain a professional and thorough approach to disputes resolution while reducing the time of legal proceedings. The changes are based on the new competence of the General Court to deal with requests under preliminary ruling procedure and certain other categories of disputes, as well as obtaining more freedom in matters of internal organization and the establishment of a permanent position of Advocate General. Taking into account the scientific and educational literature already published in Russia on the basics of the Court of Justice of the EU, the authors focused their attention on current issues and prospects for the development of the EU judicial system. The purpose of the article is a doctrinal study of the reasons that led to this reform, an analysis of the final text of the agreed draft regulation, as well as an overview of the measures that were implemented by the European Court of Justice at earlier stages and the reasons why they were insufficient. The authors consider new categories of cases, procedural guarantees to maintain uniformity of judicial practice and the stages of discussion of the draft regulation, which took place in 2023 in the EU institutions responsible for the adoption of the new legislation.

European Court of Justice, General Court, preliminary ruling, ECJ reform, Statute of the ECJ, founding treaties of the European Union