European Court of Justice

HC Deb 18 January 2000 vol 342 c413W

Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if the European Court of Justice has completed the review of its operations and procedures; and if he will place a copy of the review in the Library. [105720]

Mr. Vaz

The Court of Justice submitted a paper to the Council of Ministers on 10 May putting forward ideas on the future of the European Union's judicial system. A copy of the paper has been placed in the Library.

The proposed reforms are designed to improve the workings of the Court, including greater flexibility in the application of the Court's Rules of procedure to facilitate the handling of complex or urgent cases. The proposals should therefore allow the Court to cope more quickly and efficiently with its ever increasing workload.

Some of the proposed reforms would require Treaty change. These might be considered by member states either as part of the IGC or in parallel process.