The Court of Justice of the European Union, upholding European Union law
The Court of Justice of the European Union is one of seven European institutions.
It is the judicial institution of the European Union and its task is to ensure compliance with EU law by overseeing the uniform interpretation and application of the Treaties and ensuring the lawfulness of measures adopted by the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies.
The Institution helps to preserve the values of the European Union and, through its case-law, works towards the building of Europe.
The Court of Justice of the European Union comprises two courts: the Court of Justice and the General Court.
Introduction by the President
Every year the Review, the Court’s annual report, looks back at the events of the past year and ahead to what the future may hold. It is also the opportunity to view our activities in the broader context of the history of our institution and of European integration.
Koen Lenaerts
President of the Court of Justice of the European Union
On 10 December 1952, at the inaugural session of the Court established by the Treaty of Paris, the Court’s first President, Massimo Pilotti, quoted the Italian poet and politician Dante Alighieri in his address: ‘ubicumque potest esse litigium, ibi debet esse judicium’ (‘whenever there is a possibility of dispute there must be a judgment to settle it’). He also recalled that it fell to the Court to guarantee for all – ‘States, undertakings or simply individuals’ – respect for the boundaries within which the activities of the Community’s bodies must be contained.
That same day, Jean Monnet greeted the new court ‘not only as the Court of the European Coal and Steel Community, but also as the prospective supreme federal European Court’, a symbol of ‘the sovereign presence of the law within the Community’. More than 70 years later, those founding principles continue to inspire our daily activities. They shed light on the progress achieved in 2025 and the challenges that we foresee for 2026.
2025 was the first full year of implementation of the reform which came into force on 1 October 2024, providing for the partial transfer of jurisdiction to give preliminary rulings from the Court of Justice to the General Court in six specific areas (VAT, excise duties, the Customs Code, tariff classification, passengers’ rights and the emission allowance trading system). The results achieved have proven most satisfying. The reform is based on a ‘one-stop shop’ mechanism, under which all requests for a preliminary ruling are submitted to the Court of Justice, which then determines, after internal consultation, if they are to be transmitted to the General Court or dealt with by the Court of Justice itself. Since the reform took effect, almost 100 requests for a preliminary ruling have been handled by the one-stop shop, and about nine out of ten of them have been transmitted to the General Court, as they fell exclusively within one of the six aforementioned areas.
The composition of the European Union courts also saw a number of changes in 2025. At the Court of Justice, two new judges entered into office, one of whom came from the General Court. At the General Court, five new appointments were made, two of which were to replace Members who had become judges at the Court of Justice. Moreover, in September 2025, the governments of the Member States renewed the terms of office of 19 Judges of the General Court for the 2025-2031 period. At the same time, Mr Marc van der Woude was re-elected President of the General Court for a third term, and Mr Savvas Papasavvas was returned to the role of Vice-President.
Over the course of 2025, the Institution forged ahead with the reform of its communication policy, in particular with the launch of audiovisual debriefings presented by Members of the Court of Justice in the most significant cases: a judge who sat in the chamber which delivered the judgment presents a concise, explanatory summary of the implications of the case and how the Court of Justice resolved the legal questions raised. At the same time, progress was made on several major projects so that they could be launched simultaneously in January 2026: the redesign of the Curia website, the Institution’s main portal; the development of a new search engine; and the changes made to Curia Web TV, previously an internal audiovisual platform, to transform it into a genuine tool for external communications, supplementing existing communications channels.
As for technological advances, artificial intelligence continues to play a key role in the evolution of the Institution. This year, a number of AI-based tools have been launched or tested, in particular Curia AI Brain, a platform for internal use developed by the Institution itself which is intended to provide its staff members with a series of specialist AI assistants addressing the Court’s specific needs.
Lastly, 7 December 2025 marked the 25th anniversary of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. To celebrate that event and the Charter’s contribution both to case-law and to the protection of human rights, the next Meeting of Judges, which will take place at the Court in March 2026, will be devoted entirely to the central position held by the Charter in the EU legal order.
Through those projects and with a focus turned resolutely towards the future, the Court has remained faithful to its mission since 1952: to secure respect for the law, the trust of citizens and the stability of the EU legal order.
