Amendments to the Instructions to the Registrar of the General Court

THE GENERAL COURT

Having regard to Article 23 of its Rules of Procedure;

Having regard to the Instructions to the Registrar adopted on 5 July 2007;

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING AMENDMENTS TO THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE REGISTRAR:

Article 1

1. The names "Court of First Instance of the European Communities" and "Court of First Instance" shall be replaced by "General Court" in the Title of and throughout these Instructions.

2. (Does not apply to the English version.)

3. Article 2 shall be amended as follows:

- in Article 2(1), the words "to the public" shall be deleted;

- the second subparagraph of Article 2(1) shall be joined to the first subparagraph thereof;

- in Article 2(1), third subparagraph, which shall be numbered Article 2(2), the words "in the previous subparagraphs" shall be replaced by "in the previous paragraph" and the words "to the public" shall be deleted;

- Article 2(2), which shall be renumbered Article 2(3), shall be replaced by the following:

"The Registry shall be open at the following times:

- in the morning, from Monday to Friday, from 9.30 a.m. to 12 noon,

- in the afternoon, from Monday to Thursday, from 2.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. and on Fridays from 2.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.

During the vacations provided for in Article 34(1) of the Rules of Procedure, the Registry shall be closed on Friday afternoons.

The Registry shall be open half an hour before the commencement of a hearing to the representatives of the parties who have been called to attend that hearing.";

- the following paragraph shall be added after Article 2(2), now Article 2(3):

"4 The Registry shall be open only to the lawyers and agents of the Member States and of the institutions of the Union or to persons duly authorised by them, and to persons making an application pursuant to Article 95 of the Rules of Procedure.";

- in Article 2(3), which shall be renumbered Article 2(5), the words "When the Registry is closed," shall be replaced by "Outside the Registry’s opening hours,".

4. Article 3 shall be amended as follows:

- in Article 3(2), the word "they" shall be replaced by "They" and the words "the date of registration" shall be replaced by "the date of lodgment, the date of registration";

- in Article 3(6), the words "Article 2(3)" shall be replaced by "Article 2(5)" and the words "of the Statute of the Court of Justice" shall be replaced by "of the Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union ("the Statute")".

5. Article 4 shall be amended as follows:

- the following sentence shall be added to the first subparagraph of Article 4(1): "In the case of an appeal against a decision of the European Union Civil Service Tribunal, that number shall be followed by a specific reference.";

- the second subparagraph of Article 4(1) shall be numbered Article 4(2) and shall be replaced by the following:

"Applications for interim measures, applications to intervene, applications for rectification or interpretation of judgments, applications for revision, applications to set aside judgments by default or initiating third-party proceedings, applications for the taxation of costs and applications for legal aid relating to pending cases shall be given the same serial number as the principal action, followed by a reference to indicate that the proceedings concerned are separate special forms of procedure.

An application for legal aid made with a view to bringing an action shall be given a serial number preceded by "T-", followed by an indication of the year and a specific reference.

An action which is preceded by an application for legal aid in connection therewith shall be given the same case number as the latter.

Where the Court of Justice refers a case back to the General Court following the setting aside of a judgment or the review of a decision, that case shall be given the number previously allocated to it when it was before the General Court, followed by a specific reference.";

- Article 4(2) shall be renumbered Article 4(3).

6. Article 5 shall be amended as follows:

- (does not apply to the English version);

- the second subparagraph of Article 5(1) shall be numbered Article 5(2);

- Article 5(2) shall be renumbered Article 5(3);

- in Article 5(3), which shall be renumbered Article 5(4):

- the words in the first subparagraph, "The lawyers or agents of the parties" shall be replaced by "The representatives of the main parties";

- the second subparagraph shall be replaced by the following:

"The representatives of the parties granted leave to intervene pursuant to Article 116(2) of the Rules of Procedure shall have the same right of access to the case-file, subject to the provisions of Article 6(2) below relating to the confidential treatment of certain information or documents on the file.";

- a third subparagraph shall be added, worded as follows:

"In joined cases, the representatives of the main parties and of the parties granted leave to intervene pursuant to Article 116(2) of the Rules of Procedure shall also have a right of access to the case-files, subject to the provisions of Article 6(2) below relating to the confidential treatment of certain information or documents on the file.";

- the numbering of Article 5(4) to (7) shall be adjusted and those paragraphs renumbered Article 5(5) to (8), respectively’;

- Article 5(6), now Article 5(7), shall be replaced by the following:

"At the close of the proceedings, the Registrar shall arrange for the case-file to be closed and archived. The closed file shall contain a list of the documents on the file, an indication of their number, and a cover page showing the serial number of the case, the parties and the date on which the case was closed.".

7. Article 6 shall be amended as follows:

- in the first sentence of the first subparagraph of Article 6(2), the words "or, where cases are joined, in accordance with Article 50(2) of the Rules of Procedure, in relation to another party in a joined case." shall be added after "intervener";

- in the second subparagraph of Article 6(2), the part of the sentence beginning "a copy of every procedural document" shall be replaced by "a copy of every procedural document in its entirety will then be furnished to the intervener or, where cases are joined, the whole case-file will be made available to the other party in a joined case.";

- Article 6(3) shall be replaced by the following:

"In accordance with Article 18(4) of these Instructions, a party may apply for certain confidential information to be omitted from those documents relating to the case to which the public has access.".

8. Article 7 shall be amended as follows:

- in the first subparagraph of Article 7(1), the words "of the Court of Justice" shall be deleted;

- in the first subparagraph of Article 7(3), the word "either" shall be added after "Without prejudice" and the words "or to any decision determining the criteria for a procedural document sent to the Registry by electronic means to be deemed to be the original of that document as referred to in Article 43(7) of those Rules," shall be inserted between "communication," and "the Registrar".

9. In the second subparagraph of Article 10(4), the words "judgments and orders of the Court of First Instance and" and the words "nature or" shall be deleted.

10. Article 13 shall be amended as follows:

- in the first subparagraph of Article 13(1), the words "an indication" shall be replaced by "the numbers";

- the second subparagraph of Article 13(1) shall be numbered Article 13(2);

- in Article 13(2), which shall be renumbered Article 13(3), the words "the names of the Judges, the Advocate-General and the Registrar present, the names and capacities of the agents, lawyers or advisers of the parties present, the surnames, forenames, status and permanent addresses of the" shall be replaced by "the names of the Judges and the Registrar present, the names and capacities of the parties" representatives present, the surnames, forenames, status and permanent addresses of any’;

- Article 13(3) shall be renumbered Article 13(4).

11. Article 15 shall be amended as follows:

- the second and third subparagraphs of Article 15(1) shall be numbered Article 15(2) and (3), respectively;

- in Article 15(2), which shall be renumbered Article 15(4), the words "or in reviews of decisions" shall be added after the words "in appeals".

12. In Article 17(1) the footnote shall be deleted.

13. Article 18 shall be amended as follows:

- the heading "Publications" shall be replaced by the heading "Publications and posting of documents on the Internet";

- the following paragraph shall be added after the heading:

"1. The Registrar shall be responsible for the publications of the Court and for posting on the Internet documents relating to the Court.";

- Article 18(1), (2) and (3) shall be renumbered Article 18(2), (3) and (4), respectively;

- Article 18(3), now Article 18(4), shall be replaced by the following:

"The Registrar shall ensure that the case-law of the Court is made public in accordance with any arrangements adopted by the Court.

On a reasoned application by a party, made by a separate document, or of its own motion, the Court may omit the name of a party to the dispute or of other persons mentioned in connection with the proceedings, or certain information, from those documents relating to a case to which the public has access if there are legitimate reasons for keeping the identity of a person or the information confidential.";

- Article 18(4) shall be deleted.

Article 2

These amendments to the Instructions to the Registrar shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

They shall enter into force on the day following their publication.

Done at Luxembourg, 17 May 2010.

E. Coulon

Registrar

M. Jaeger

President

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