Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the General Court

‘6 In cases not yet assigned to a formation of the Court, the President of the General Court may adopt the measures of organisation of procedure provided for in Article 89 and shall have the power to take the decisions referred to in Articles 66 and 66a.’

‘6 Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 5, where a case concerns a specific matter for the purposes of Article 25 and the written part of the procedure has not been closed when the decision of the General Court on the assignment of Judges to Chambers is adopted, a new Judge-Rapporteur shall be designated within a Chamber which hears and determines cases in that matter if the initial Judge-Rapporteur is assigned to a Chamber which does not do so.’

‘2 The Chamber seised of the case, the Vice-President of the General Court or the President of the General Court may, at any stage in the proceedings, either of its or his own motion or at the request of a main party, propose to the plenum that the case be referred as provided for in paragraph 1.’

‘3 The President of the General Court or the Vice-President of the General Court may propose to the plenum that the case be referred as provided for in paragraph 1 until the close of the oral part of the procedure or, where Article 106(3) applies, before the Chamber seised of the case decides to rule without an oral part of the procedure.’

‘3 After being so designated, the Advocate General shall be heard before the decisions provided for in Articles 16, 28, 45, 68, 70, 83, 87, 90, 92, 98, 103, 105, 106, 113, 126 to 132, 144, 151, 165, 168, and 169 and 207 to 209 are taken.’

‘3 The Registrar shall have custody of the seals and shall be responsible for the records. He shall be in charge, in accordance with the criteria laid down by the General Court, of its the publications of the General Court, in particular, the European Court Reports, and of the dissemination on the Internet of documents concerning the General Court.’

‘1 In direct actions within the meaning of Article 1, the language of a case shall be chosen by the applicant, except that: (a) where the defendant is a Member State or a natural or legal person having the nationality of a Member State, the language of the case shall be the official language of that State; where that State has more than one official language, the applicant may choose between them; (b) where an application is submitted by an institution pursuant to an arbitration clause contained in a contract concluded by or on behalf of the Union, whether that contract be governed by public or private law, in accordance with Article 272 TFEU, the language of the case shall be the language in which the contract was concluded; where that contract has been drawn up in more than one language, the applicant may choose between them; (c) at the joint request of the main parties, the use of another of the languages mentioned in Article 44 for all or part of the proceedings may be authorised; (d) at the request of one of the parties, and after the other parties have been heard, the use of another of the languages mentioned in Article 44 as the language of the case for all or part of the proceedings may be authorised by way of derogation from subparagraphs (b) (a) to (c); such a request may not be submitted by an institution.’

‘3 Without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph 1(b) and(c) and (d),: (a) in appeals against decisions of the Civil Service Tribunal as referred to in Articles 9 and 10 of Annex I to the Statute, the language of the case shall be the language of the decision of the Civil Service Tribunal against which the appeal is brought; (b) in the case of applications for rectification, applications for the General Court to remedy a failure to adjudicate or for it to set aside judgments by default, third-party proceedings and applications for interpretation or revision of a judgment or in the case of disputes concerning the costs to be recovered, the language of the case shall be the language of the decision to which those applications or disputes relate.’

‘4 Without prejudice to the provisions in paragraph 1(b) and(c) and (d), in proceedings brought against decisions of the Boards of Appeal of the Office, referred to in Article 1, with respect to the application of the rules relating to an intellectual property regime:’

‘2 Any material produced or annexed that is expressed in another language must be accompanied by a translation into the language of the case. Where material annexed to a procedural document is not accompanied by a translation into the language of the case, the Registrar shall require the party concerned to make good the irregularity if the President decides, of his own motion or at the request of a party, that a translation is necessary for the purposes of the efficient conduct of the proceedings. If the irregularity is not made good, the annexes in question shall be removed from the case file.’

‘3 However, iIn the case of substantial material, translations may be confined to extracts. At any time the President may, of his own motion or at the request of one of the parties, call for a complete or fuller translation.’

‘5 The States, other than the Member States, which are parties to the EEA Agreement, and also the EFTA Surveillance Authority, may shall be authorised to use one of the languages mentioned in Article 44, other than the language of the case, when they intervene in a case before the General Court. This provision shall apply both to written documents and to oral statements. The Registrar shall arrange in each instance for translation into the language of the case.’

‘1 The Registrar shall, at the request of any Judge, of the Advocate General or of a party, arrange for procedural documents anything said or written in the course of the proceedings before the General Court to be translated into the language of the case and, as the case may be, into another languages chosen from those referred to in Article 44.

2 The Registrar shall ensure that what is said at the hearing is interpreted into the language of the case and into the other languages that are referred to in Article 44 and are used by the parties present at the hearing or considered necessary for the efficient conduct of that hearing.’

‘2 The lawyer representing or assisting a party must lodge at the Registry a certificate that he is authorised to practise before a court of a Member State or of another State which is a party to the EEA Agreement. unless that certificate has already been lodged for the purposes of opening an account giving access to e-Curia.’

‘4 If the documents referred to in paragraphs 2 and or that referred to in paragraph 3 is are not lodged, the Registrar shall prescribe a reasonable time limit within which the party concerned is to produce it them. If the party concerned fails to produce the required documents within the time limit prescribed, the General Court shall decide whether the non-compliance with that procedural requirement in question renders the application or written pleadings formally inadmissible or whether it leads to the lawyer being regarded as not representing or assisting the party concerned.’

1 In the course of the proceedings, the General Court may decide to omit, of its own motion or on an application by a party made by a separate document, the full names of natural persons, whether parties or third parties, and any other personal data of those natural persons mentioned in the documents and information which relate to a case and to which the public has access.

2 Paragraph 1 shall apply to applicants for leave to intervene.’

1 In the course of the proceedings, the General Court may decide to omit, of its own motion or on a reasoned application by a party made by a separate document, data other than personal data of natural persons mentioned in documents and information to which the public has access if there are legitimate reasons why those data should not be publicly disclosed.

2 Paragraph 1 shall apply to applicants for leave to intervene.’

1 Where two or more cases pending before the General Court raise the same issue of law and the General Court considers that it is in the interests of the proper administration of justice to avoid those cases being dealt with in parallel, the proceedings may be stayed in accordance with Article 69(c) or (d) and Articles 70 and 71, pending the determination of the case which, among them, best lends itself to the examination of that issue, which shall be identified as the pilot case.

2 Before deciding whether to stay proceedings, the President shall invite the main parties in the cases in which the proceedings may be stayed to submit their observations on any stay, in accordance with Article 70(1), indicating to them the issue of law involved and the case likely to be identified as the pilot case.

3 The President of the Chamber to which the pilot case is assigned shall give that case priority over others, in accordance with Article 67(2).

4 When the proceedings are resumed, the parties in the cases in which the proceedings have been stayed shall be given the opportunity to submit their observations on the decision given in the pilot case and on the consequences of that decision for the dispute.’

If the similarities between two or more cases so permit, the General Court may decide to organise a joint hearing of those cases.’

1 Where health, security or other serious reasons prevent a party’s representative from participating in a hearing in person, that representative may be authorised to take part in the hearing by video conference.

2 The request to participate in the hearing by video conference shall be made by a separate document as soon as the reason for the impediment is known and shall state the precise nature of the impediment.

3 The President shall decide on the request as soon as possible.

4 The use of video conferencing shall not be possible in the event of a decision by the General Court to hear a case in camera pursuant to Article 109.

5 The technical conditions to be satisfied by those wishing to participate in hearings by video conference shall be laid down in the practice rules referred to in Article 224.’

These amendments to the Rules of Procedure, authentic in the languages referred to in Article 44 of these Rules, shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following that of their publication.