In 2004, 10 new Member States joined the European Union. Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia expressed their confidence in the building of Europe. Two decades later, we will stand together with those Member States as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of their accession. The European Union’s biggest enlargement, in terms of population and the number of countries, broadened our horizon. It gave the common area of justice within the European Union a new look, and one enriched by new cultural and intellectual diversity. It was a major challenge for the European Union, given the degree of integration it had achieved in 2004, on the one hand, and the economic, historic and linguistic diversity brought by the 10 new Member States, on the other. The accession required significant efforts on the Member States’ part and an unfailing commitment to implementing the necessary political, economic and legal reforms. From the Court’s perspective, welcoming 10 new Member States at the same time spelled profound and lasting changes for its working arrangements.
To mark the anniversary of that significant event, in May 2024 the Court is organising a conference entitled ‘The Court celebrates 20 years since the accession of 10 Member States to the European Union: a new constitutional era for Europe’, with the goal of evaluating the lessons learned from the enlargement and from the consolidation of European integration. The conference will focus on the impact of the 2004 enlargement, in political, legal and economic terms, both for the European Union itself and for the 10 new Member States. More specifically, the conference will consider the contribution of the 10 new Member States to the development of the European Union as a ‘union of values’, based on common values such as democracy, the rule of law, fundamental rights and respect for minorities.
2024 will also be the year of the implementation of the political agreement reached in 2023 concerning the partial transfer of jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings from the Court of Justice to the General Court. This will involve, inter alia, the amendment of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice and of the General Court, as well as various adjustments to the working arrangements of the two courts and in the day-to-day functioning of the Institution, such as the adaptation of IT systems.
In addition, whilst pushing ahead with its digital transformation, the Institution is also adapting to new challenges and future opportunities, primarily in the fields of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. New tools are being developed and investigated, in particular those based on AI technologies, with a view to helping the two courts to perform their mission effectively and to optimise judicial processes as a result. When put to use, those tools must not only enable data to be controlled but also ensure that fundamental rights and ethical principles are respected. Moreover, Regulation No 2023/2841, which is intended to ensure a high common level of cybersecurity at all the institutions of the European Union, has a direct impact on the Court and means, in particular, that an internal cybersecurity risk-management framework must be established and that the effectiveness of those measures must be assessed regularly, in the light of changing risks.
