Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities

THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

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

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, 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 14 May 2008;

Whereas:

It is necessary to amend certain provisions of the Rules of Procedure in order, first, to have regard to the role of the European Parliament in connection with legislative procedure and, second, to adapt them to the needs of efficient organisation of the court;

In the light of experience, adaptation is necessary in order to enable the court to hear and determine more efficiently cases within the sphere of intellectual property,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING AMENDMENTS 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), 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) and 18 December 2006 (OJ L 386 of 29 December 2006, p. 45) are amended as follows:

1. In Article 24(7) a new sentence shall be added:

"Copies of those documents shall likewise be sent to the European Parliament, to enable it to assess whether the inapplicability of an act adopted jointly by that institution and by the Council is being invoked under Article 241 of the EC Treaty."

2. In the first subparagraph of Article 51(1) the last sentence shall be replaced by the following text:

"The decision to refer a case to a formation composed of a greater number of Judges shall be taken by the Court of First Instance in plenary session, after hearing the Advocate General."

3. In Article 77, in subparagraph (c) "." shall be replaced by ";" and a subparagraph (d) shall be added, worded as follows:

"(d) in other particular cases where the proper administration of justice so requires."

4. In the first subparagraph of Article 100(2) of the Rules of Procedure, the words "other than a judgment or order of the Court of First Instance" shall be replaced by "including a judgment or order of the Court of First Instance"; a new subparagraph, worded as follows: "Judgments and orders notified pursuant to Article 55 of the Statute of the Court of Justice to the Member States and institutions which were not parties to the proceedings shall be sent to them by telefax or any other technical means of communication." shall be added after the first subparagraph; lastly, in the following subparagraph, the words "nature or" shall be deleted.

5. The text of a new Article 135a shall be inserted between Article 135 and Article 136:

"Article 135a

After the submission of pleadings as provided for in Article 135(1) and, if applicable, Article 135(2) and (3), the Court of First Instance, acting upon a report from the Judge-Rapporteur and after hearing the Advocate General and the parties, may decide to rule on the action without an oral procedure unless one of the parties submits an application setting out the reasons for which he wishes to be heard. The application shall be submitted within a period of one month from notification to the party of closure of the written procedure. That period may be extended by the President."

Article 2

These amendments to the Rules of Procedure, which are authentic in the languages mentioned 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 their publication.

Done at Luxembourg, 12 June 2008.

E. Coulon

Registrar

M. Jaeger

The President

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