On 23 March 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published its judicial statistics for the year 2023. Looking at the number of cases brought before the Court of Justice (ECJ) and the General Court, 2023 once again confirmed an upward trend, with 2092 new cases brought before the two courts, passing the threshold of 2000 new cases for the first time.

The key statistics for both courts:

• In 2023, the Court of Justice received 821 new cases, the General Court 1271 new cases (including a series of 404 cases concerning changes to the voluntary supplementary pension scheme for Members of the European Parliament, which are essentially identical);
• 1687 cases were completed by both courts;
• 2990 cases were pending before both courts.

The key statistics for the Court of Justice:

• The average length of proceedings, all types of cases taken together, amounted to 16.1 months;
• Similar to previous years, preliminary rulings and appeals account for over 90% of all cases brought before the Court of Justice;
• The Court noted an increased number of direct actions (60 new cases in 2023). This can be explained by the increase in the number of actions for annulment (Poland alone lodged seven actions in 2023) and by the increase in the number of actions brought by a Member State for failure to fulfil obligations;
• The largest number of questions referred to the Court of Justice for preliminary rulings in 2023 concerned the area of freedom, security and justice (82). Most of these questions involved the interpretation of rules on the right of asylum and the system of international protection. In addition, many questions referred for a preliminary ruling concerned the areas of taxation (53), consumer protection (52), and transport (40);
• References for a preliminary ruling came mainly from German (94), Bulgarian (51), and Polish (48) courts.

The key statistics for the General Court:

• The average length of proceedings was 18.1 months;
• In 2023, the General Court's reform, providing for the doubling of its judges, took full effect;
• The General Court completed 904 cases;
• 2023 saw an increase in cases brought before the Court in the fields of intellectual property (310) and economic and monetary policy, in particular banking law;
• Litigation in conjunction with restrictive measures remained at a high level but dropped to 63 cases in 2023 compared to 103 cases in 2022;
• The number of cases closed by extended formations of five judges increased by 23% (123 cases) in 2023.

The CJEU's annual report also highlighted the negotiations on two important legislative amendments, i.e. the transfer to the General Court of the jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings in six specific matters and the extension of possibilities for the Court of Justice to determine whether an appeal against a decision of the General Court should be allowed to proceed.