Reading the status of a case at the EU courts

Stages at the Court of Justice

• Lodged: the Registry assigns a case number and records it in the Register ².
• Written phase: in preliminary references, parties, Member States and EU institutions have two months and ten days to submit observations ². In direct actions, the defendant has two months and ten days to lodge a defence ².
• Assignment: the President assigns a Judge-Rapporteur and the First Advocate General assigns an Advocate General ².
• Preliminary report: after the written phase closes, the Court decides how many Judges hear the case and whether a hearing or an Opinion is needed ².
• Hearing: public, in Luxembourg, with some hearings streamed ².
• Opinion: if requested, the Advocate General reads it in open court, normally a few months after the hearing, which ends the oral phase ².
• Deliberation and judgment: confidential deliberation, then a judgment delivered in open court and posted in the case-law database on the same day ².

What the public can see at each stage

The Court states that all publicly available information on a case is in the case-law database on its website ³. The case details appear the day after the Registry records the case ³. In direct actions, a summary of the applicant's claims is translated into all EU languages and published in the Official Journal ³.

Some documents stay private until later. Written observations in preliminary references are made public after the case is closed, if the author does not object ². The reply and rejoinder in direct actions are not available to the public ². The deliberation is confidential, there are no dissenting opinions, and the result of any vote is not made public ².

Special procedures that change the timeline

• Simplified procedure: where a question is identical to one already answered, or the answer is clear, the Court answers by reasoned Order ².
• Expedited procedure: time limits are reduced as much as possible in very urgent cases, and the President decides whether to grant it ².
• Urgent preliminary ruling procedure (PPU): limited to the area of freedom, security and justice, handled by special Chambers of five Judges ².

The General Court

The General Court works in a written phase and an oral phase, and cases can be closed by a judgment or decided by an order ⁵. Defendants in direct actions have two months to lodge a defence ⁵. The Court says its cases take around 20 months on average ⁵.

Since a reform that entered into force on 1 September 2024, the General Court has exclusive jurisdiction over preliminary references in the specific areas listed in Article 50b of the Statute ⁴. These references go to one of two specialised Chambers of five Judges ⁵. In 2025, 65 references were transferred to it, 24 of them on the common system of VAT ¹.

Caseload in 2025

The figures below come from the Court's press release of 20 March 2026 ¹. The General Court figure for closed cases counts a series of 404 near-identical cases, T-620/23 to T-1023/23, as one case ¹. Counted separately, the General Court closed 1,527 cases ¹.

Where references come from

In 2025, the Court of Justice received 580 references for a preliminary ruling from national courts ¹. Courts in Italy sent 110 and courts in Poland 63 ¹. At the Court of Justice, average duration fell from 17.2 to 16.9 months for preliminary rulings, from 21.5 to 20 months for direct actions and from 18.4 to 15.1 months for appeals ¹.