§ Mr. John Morrisasked the Attorney-General, further to his reply to the right hon. and learned Member for Aberavon on 11 July, Official Report, c. 207, what initiatives the Government are taking to reduce the length of time between references to the European Court of Justice and its ruling; and if he will estimate how much of the time of the court is taken up dealing with industrial disputes concerning the staff of the European Community.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe United Kingdom has been actively supporting attempts to create a staff tribunal that would be likely to reduce substantially the number of staff cases coming before the court. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to secure the agreement of all member states. Nevertheless, there have been recent reforms made to the internal conciliation procedures within the Commission and it is to be hoped that this will have the desirable effect of reducing the number of staff cases coming before the court.
356WIt is not possible on the basis documents received by the Government about staff cases to give a realistic estimate of how much of the time of the time of the European Court of Justice is taken up by such cases.