European Union General Court

It hears actions taken against the institutions of the European Union by individuals and member states, although certain matters are reserved for the European Court of Justice. Decisions of the General Court can be appealed to the Court of Justice, but only on a point of law. Prior to the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, it was known as the Court of First Instance.

Court of Justice of the European Union General Court
Emblem of the Court of Justice of the European Union
Established	1989
Jurisdiction	European Union and Northern Ireland
Location	Palais de la Cour de Justice, Kirchberg, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Authorized by	Treaties of the European Union
Appeals to	European Court of Justice
Number of positions	54 judges (2 per member state) 5 vacant
Website	curia.europa.eu
President
Currently	Marc van der Woude
Since	27 September 2019
Vice-President
Currently	Savvas Papasavvas
Since	27 September 2019
Registrar
Currently	Vittorio Di Bucci
Since	5 June 2023
Division map

The General Court hears disputes (such as those by persons who have been refused a trade mark by EUIPO, the EU Trade Mark and designs registry).

The creation of the General Court instituted a judicial system based on two levels of jurisdiction: all cases heard at first instance by the General Court may be subject to a right of appeal to the Court of Justice on points of law only.

In view of the increasing number of cases brought before the General Court in the last five years, to relieve it of some of the caseload, the Treaty of Nice, which entered into force on 1 February 2003, provides for the creation of 'judicial panels' in certain specific areas.

On 2 November 2004 the Council adopted a decision establishing the European Union Civil Service Tribunal. This new specialised tribunal, composed of seven judges, heard and determined at first instance disputes involving the European Civil Service. Its decisions were subject to a right of appeal before the General Court on points of law only. Decisions given by the General Court in this area might exceptionally be subject to review by the Court of Justice. The European Union Civil Service Tribunal was duly constituted into law on 2 December 2005. Despite the success in its mandate, it was dissolved on 1 September 2016, leading to the doubling of the number of judges at the General Court.

Since February 2020 the General Court is composed of 54 Judges; this follows a 2016 reform which increased the number of judges to two per member state by 2019, and the departure of the UK from the EU at the end of January 2020. The Judges are appointed for a renewable term of six years by common accord of the governments of the Member States. As of February 2020^[update], there are 49 Judges in post: 23 member states have nominated both their judges, whilst Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia have nominated just one, and Slovenia has nominated neither.

The members of the General Court elect their president and the presidents of the Chambers of five Judges from among their number for a renewable period of three years.

There are no permanent Advocates General attached to the General Court (unlike the European Court of Justice, which has eleven Advocates General). However, the task of an Advocate General may be performed in a limited number of cases by a Judge nominated to do so. In practice this has been done occasionally.

List of presidents

Elected	Term ended	Judge
25 September 1989	18 September 1995	José Luís da Cruz Vilaça
18 September 1995	4 March 1998	Antonio Saggio
4 March 1998	17 September 2007	Bo Vesterdorf
17 September 2007	26 September 2019	Marc Jaeger
27 September 2019	Incumbent	Marc van der Woude

List of vice-presidents

Elected	Term ended	Judge
17 September 2013	19 September 2016	Heikki Kanninen
20 September 2016	26 September 2019	Marc van der Woude
27 September 2019	Incumbent	Savvas Papasavvas

List of judges

Name	Country	Elected	Current term ends	Other
Viktor Kreuschitz	Austria	2013	2022
Gerhard Hesse	Austria	2019	2022
Paul Nihoul	Belgium	2016	2022
Geert De Baere	Belgium	2017	2022
Mariyana Kancheva	Bulgaria	2011	2025
Alexander Kornezov	Bulgaria	2016	2025	President of the Tenth Chamber
Vesna Tomljenović	Croatia	2013	2025	President of the Second Chamber
Tamara Perišin	Croatia	2019	2025
Savvas Papasavvas	Cyprus	2004	2022	Vice-President of the General Court (2019–2022)
Anna Marcoulli	Cyprus	2016	2022	President of the Sixth Chamber
Petra Škvařilová-Pelzl	Czech Republic	2019	2025
David Petrlík	Czech Republic	2021	2025
Sten Frimodt Nielsen	Denmark	2007	2022
Jesper Svenningsen	Denmark	2016	2022	President of the Eighth Chamber
Lauri Madise	Estonia	2013	2022
Iko Nõmm	Estonia	2019	2022
Heikki Kanninen	Finland	2009	2022	President of the First Chamber Vice-President of the General Court (2013–2016)
Tuula Pynnä	Finland	2019	2022
Stéphane Gervasoni	France	2013	2025	President of the Fourth Chamber
Laurent Truchot	France	2019	2025	Judge (2007–2013)
Johannes Laitenberger	Germany	2019	2025
Gabriele Steinfatt	Germany	2019	2025
Dimitris Gratsias	Greece	2010	2022
Constantinos Iliopoulos	Greece	2016	2022
TBA	Hungary
Zoltán Csehi	Hungary	2016	2022
Suzanne Kingston	Ireland	2021	2025
Colm Mac Eochaidh	Ireland	2017	2025
Roberto Mastroianni	Italy	2019	2025
Ornella Porchia	Italy	2019	2025
TBA	Latvia
Inga Reine	Latvia	2016	2025
Rimvydas Norkus	Lithuania	2019	2025
Virgilijus Valančius	Lithuania	2016	2019*
Marc Jaeger	Luxembourg	1996	2022	President of the General Court (2007–2019)
Dean Spielmann	Luxembourg	2016	2022	President of the Fifth Chamber
Eugène Buttigieg	Malta	2012	2025
Ramona Frendo	Malta	2019	2025
Marc van der Woude	Netherlands	2010	2022	President of the General Court (2019–2022) Vice-President of the General Court (2016–2019)
René Barents	Netherlands	2016	2022
Krystyna Kowalik-Bańczyk	Poland	2016	2022
Nina Półtorak	Poland	2016	2016*
Ion Gâlea	Romania	2021	2022
Mirela Stancu	Romania	2019	2022
Ricardo Da Silva Passos	Portugal	2016	2022	President of the Seventh Chamber
Maria José Costeira	Portugal	2016	2022	President of the Ninth Chamber
Juraj Schwarcz	Slovakia	2009	2022
TBA	Slovakia
Maja Brkan	Slovenia	2021	2025
Damjan Kukovec	Slovenia	TBA
José Martín y Pérez de Nanclares	Spain	2019	2025
Miguel Sampol Pucurull	Spain	2019	2025
Ulf Christophe Öberg	Sweden	2016	2025
Fredrik Schalin	Sweden	2016	2025

* Judge continues to hold the office until their successor takes up the duties according to the Article 5(3) of the Protocol No. 3 on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EU

List of former judges

Name	Country	Elected	Term ended	Ref.
Josef Azizi	Austria	19 January 1995	16 September 2013
Koen Lenaerts	Belgium	25 September 1989	6 October 2003
Franklin Dehousse	Belgium	6 October 2003	19 September 2016
Teodor Tchipev	Bulgaria	12 January 2007	29 June 2010
Irena Pelikánová	Czech Republic	12 May 2004	26 September 2019
Jan M. Passer	Czech Republic	19 September 2016	6 October 2020
Bo Versterdorf	Denmark	25 September 1989	17 September 2007
Küllike Jürimäe	Estonia	12 May 2004	23 October 2013
Virpi Tiili	Finland	8 January 1995	6 October 2009
Jacques Biancarelli	France	25 September 1989	18 September 1995
André Potocki	France	18 September 1995	19 September 2001
Hubert Legal	France	19 September 2001	17 September 2007
Heinrich Kirschner	Germany	25 September 1989	6 February 1997
Jörg Pirrung	Germany	11 June 1997	17 September 2007
Alfred Dittrich	Germany	17 September 2007	26 September 2019
Christos G. Yeraris	Greece	25 September 1989	18 September 1992
Andreas Kalogerpoulos	Greece	18 September 1992	17 September 1998
Michail Vilaras	Greece	17 September 1998	25 October 2010
Ottó Czúcz	Hungary	12 May 2004	19 September 2016
Barna Berke	Hungary	19 September 2016	2 August 2021
Donal Barrington	Ireland	25 September 1989	10 January 1996
John Cooke	Ireland	10 January 1996	15 September 2008
Kevin O'Higgins	Ireland	15 September 2008	16 September 2013
Anthony M. Collins	Ireland	16 September 2013	7 October 2021
Antonio Saggio	Italy	25 September 1989	4 March 1998
Paolo Mengozzi	Italy	4 March 1998	3 May 2006
Enzo Moavero Milanesi	Italy	3 May 2006	15 November 2011
Guido Berardis	Italy	17 September 2012	31 August 2019
Ezio Perillo	Italy	19 September 2016	26 September 2019
Ingrida Labucka	Latvia	12 May 2004	25 February 2020
Vilenas Vadapalas	Lithuania	12 May 2004	16 September 2013
Egidijus Bieliūnas	Lithuania	16 September 2013	26 September 2019
Romain Schintgen	Luxembourg	25 September 1989	11 July 1996
Ena Cremona	Malta	12 May 2004	22 March 2012
Peter George Xuereb	Malta	6 June 2016	8 October 2018
Cornelis Paulus Briët	Netherlands	25 September 1989	17 September 1998
Arjen Meij	Netherlands	17 September 1998	13 September 2010
Irena Wiszniewska-Bialecka	Poland	15 May 2004	19 September 2016
Nina Półtorak	Poland	13 April 2016	31 August 2016
José Luis Da Cruz Vilaça	Portugal	25 September 1989	18 September 1995
Rui Manuel Gens De Moura Ramos	Portugal	19 September 1995	31 March 2003
Maria Eguénia Martins De Nazaré Ribeiro	Portugal	31 March 2003	19 September 2016
Valeriu M. Ciuca	Romania	12 January 2007	26 November 2010
Andrei Popescu	Romania	26 November 2010	19 September 2016
Octavia Spineanu-Matei	Romania	19 September 2016	7 October 2021
Daniel Šváby	Slovakia	21 May 2004	6 October 2010
Verica Trstenjak	Slovenia	7 July 2004	6 October 2006
Miro Prek	Slovenia	6 October 2006	26 September 2019
Rafael Garcia-Valdecasas Y Fernández	Spain	25 September 1989	17 September 2007
Santiago Soldevila Fragoso	Spain	17 September 2007	16 September 2013
Ignacio Ulloa Rubio	Spain	16 September 2013	26 September 2019
Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo Ibáñez-Martín	Spain	13 April 2016	26 September 2019
Pernilla Lindh	Sweden	18 January 1995	6 October 2006
Nils Wahl	Sweden	6 October 2006	28 November 2012
Carl Wetter	Sweden	18 March 2013	19 September 2016
Former Member State
David A. O. Edward	United Kingdom	25 September 1989	10 March 1992
Christopher William Bellamy	United Kingdom	10 March 1992	15 December 1999
Nicholas James Forwood	United Kingdom	15 December 1999	7 October 2015
Ian Stewart Forrester	United Kingdom	1 October 2015	31 January 2020

List of registrars

Elected	Term ended	Judge
27 September 1989	6 October 2005	Hans Jung
6 October 2005	30 April 2023	Emmanuel Coulon
5 June 2023	Incumbent	Vittorio Di Bucci

The General Court, like the Court of Justice, has the task of ensuring that the law is observed in the interpretation and application of the Treaties of the European Union and the provisions adopted by the competent Union institutions.

To fulfil its main task, the General Court has jurisdiction to hear and determine at first instance all direct actions brought by individuals and the Member States, with the exception of those to be assigned to a 'judicial panel' and those reserved for the Court of Justice.

Categories of direct actions

• Actions for annulment

(against acts of the Union institutions)

• Actions for failure to act

(against inaction by the Union institutions)

• Actions for damages

(for the reparation of damage caused by unlawful conduct on the part of a Union institution)

• Actions based on an arbitration clause

(disputes concerning contracts in public or private law entered into by the Union, containing such a clause)

• Actions concerning the civil service (disputes between the Union and its officials and other servants) – from 2005 to 2016 these cases were transferred to the European Union Civil Service Tribunal, but returned to the General Court when its size was doubled

Subject-matter of direct actions: all matters, including:

• agriculture
• State aid
• competition
• commercial policy
• regional policy
• social policy
• institutional law
• trade mark and design right law
• transport

The General Court has its own Rules of Procedure. The 1991 rules were replaced by revised Rules of Procedure which came into effect on 1 July 2015. In the main, the Court's procedure includes a written phase and an oral phase. The proceedings are conducted in a language at the petitioner's choosing. As in the European Court of Justice, the working language of the Court is nevertheless French, and this includes the language the judges deliberate in and the drafting language of preliminary reports and judgments.

The Court is separated into 9 divisions (called ‘chambers’) sat by 3-judge benches, except for the 7th division whose bench is sat by 4 judges. Each chamber has an extended composition of 5 judges. Cases are assigned by the President of the Court to a relevant divisional presiding judge. The presiding judge assigned to the case then chooses a judge-reporter (judge-rapporteur) from the judges of the division, whose clerks write a preliminary report (rapport préalable) based on the parties' pleadings and applicable law.

At the close of the written phase and, as the case may be, on adoption of measures of inquiry, the case is argued orally in open court. The proceedings are interpreted simultaneously, if necessary, into various official languages of the European Union. The judges then deliberate based on a draft judgment prepared by the judge-reporter. The Court's final judgment is handed down in open court.