Amendment to the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular the fifth paragraph of Article 224 thereof,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular the fifth paragraph of Article 140 thereof,

Having regard to Article 63 of the Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice,

Having regard to the agreement of the Court of Justice,

Having regard to the approval of the Council given on 27 November 2008,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING AMENDMENT TO ITS RULES OF PROCEDURE:

Article 1

The Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities of 2 May 1991 (OJ L 136 of 30 May 1991, p. 1, with corrigendum OJ L 317 of 19 November 1991, p. 34), amended on 15 September 1994 (OJ L 249 of 24 September 1994, p. 17), 17 February 1995 (OJ L 44 of 28 February 1995, p. 64), 6 July 1995 (OJ L 172 of 22 July 1995, p. 3), 12 March 1997 (OJ L 103 of 19 April 1997, p. 6, with corrigendum OJ L 351 of 23 December 1997, p. 72), 17 May 1999 (OJ L 135 of 29 May 1999, p. 92), 6 December 2000 (OJ L 322 of 19 December 2000, p. 4), 21 May 2003 (OJ L 147 of 14 June 2003, p. 22), 19 April 2004 (OJ L 132 of 29 April 2004, p. 3), 21 April 2004 (OJ L 127 of 29 April 2004, p. 108), 12 October 2005 (OJ L 298 of 15 November 2005, p. 1), 18 December 2006 (OJ L 386 of 29 December 2006, p. 45) and 12 June 2008 (OJ L 179 of 8 July 2008, p. 12) are hereby amended as follows:

Article 7(3) shall be replaced by the following:

"The elections provided for in this Article shall be by secret ballot. The Judge obtaining the votes of more than half the Judges composing the Court shall be elected. If no Judge obtains that majority, further ballots shall be held until that majority is attained."

Article 2

This amendment to the Rules of Procedure, which is authentic in the languages referred to in Article 35(1) 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 its publication.

Done at Luxembourg, 14 January 2009.

E. Coulon

Registrar

M. Jaeger

President

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