Microsoft was fined 500 million euros for abuse of its dominant position. A fine of 10 million euros was imposed on France for failing to transpose EU legislation on GMOs into French law in the time given. To make sure that states, EU institutions, and companies respect European law, heavy penalties are sometimes needed. This is where it happens. Welcome to Luxembourg to the Court of Justice of the European Union. It's a court like any other with judges and courtrooms. Well, nearly. Here they only deal with cases linked to European law. Free movement of people, goods and capital, consumer and environmental protection... The areas of the EU's competence are growing all the time. In addition to the treaties and the legislation of the EU's political institutions, there is jurisprudence, which contains clarifications of the treaties and of this legislation. The jurisprudence is behind me. It's available in the 23 languages of the European Union, each of which is represented by a colour. Indeed, this jurisprudence colours the daily lives of European citizens who travel, who work, who stay, who study in a Member State other than their own. The Court of Justice of the EU has three levels of jurisdiction. The Court of Justice, the General Court and the Civil Service Tribunal. The Court of Justice is made up of one judge from each Member State. Its main task is to give its interpretation of EU law. It also deals with conflicts involving one of the EU institutions, a Member State, or between several Member States. The General Court is made up of at least one judge from each state. They mainly deal with cases brought by individuals or companies. Finally, the Civil Service Tribunal has seven judges. As its name indicates, it deals with conflicts between EU institutions and their civil servants. In total, over 1,000 cases are dealt with in the three courts every year. But what exactly does the court do? Most often, it's a matter of interpreting the law. A national judge asks for a clarification of meaning on a point of European law. This interpretation by the Court of Justice will then apply in all similar cases. But beware. The Union's court doesn't resolve the content of the dispute. It only gives its interpretation, and national judges will give their verdict accordingly. The court can also check that regional or national laws respect European law since the latter has greater value than national laws of Member States. When a Member State does not apply a European directive in its national law, the Commission can take it before the Court of Justice. That gives rise to a hearing in a courtroom like the one we are in here. If the court decides that the Member State has to comply and it doesn't do so, that can cost it a lot of money because in a second procedure the court can impose financial sanctions. The interpretations of this court are sometimes included in EU legislation. So the judges of this court sometimes make the law. But that's another debate.
EuroparlTV video ID: 501aa8e9-0e82-41f2-bf52-a0d300c231e1
How it works: Luxembourg, the European capital of justice... law of supply and demand | |
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| News & Politics | Upload TimePublished on 23 Oct 2012 |
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