CJEU Judicial Statistics 2025

PRESS RELEASE No 44/26 Luxembourg, 20 March 2026 Judicial statistics 2025: a very high level of activity accompanied by a reduction in the length of proceedings Court of Justice • Continued high volume of cases brought despite the transfer of 65 requests for a preliminary ruling to the General Court. • Intense judicial activity with the number of cases closed similar to that in the years since 2021 (with the exception of 2024, a year in which the partial replacement of the Court led to the priority closure of an exceptionally high number of cases). • Reduction in the average duration of proceedings (16.7 months compared with 17.7 months in 2024). • Significant number of requests for a preliminary ruling from Italy and Poland. General Court • Highest number of cases closed in a calendar year in the history of the General Court. • Record number of cases brought, but reduction in the backlog of pending cases to its lowest level in 18 years. • Reduction in the average duration of proceedings (16 months compared with 18.5 months in 2024). The number of cases brought before the two courts in 2025 was 1 878 (1 706 in 2024). As regards the number of cases dealt with, the Court of Justice and the General Court closed a total of 1 898 cases in 2025 – bearing in mind that that breakdown treats a series of 404 essentially identical joined cases as one case – (by way of comparison: 1 784 cases were closed in 2024, which was already an exceptional figure compared with previous years; 1 687 in 2023 and 1 666 in 2022). The number of cases pending before the two courts is 2 489, confirming the decline observed last year (2 509 in 2024 compared to 2 587 in 2023). General trend in the institution's judicial activity (2021-2025)

1 720 1 710 1 689 1 706 1 878 1 723 1 666 1 687 1 784 1 898 2 541 2 585 2 587 2 509 2 489 Court of Justice The past year saw a significant influx of new cases, with 889 cases brought before the Court of Justice. This figure represents a slight decrease compared with the previous year, when 920 cases were brought. However, if not for the reform of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union – whereby the Court of Justice's preliminary ruling jurisdiction in six specific areas was transferred to the General Court – 954 cases would have been brought before the Court of Justice last year, a number close to the record reached in 2019, when 966 cases were registered. 2025 was also a year of intense judicial activity, with the Court of Justice closing 774 cases, a number comparable to that of previous years (792 in 2020, 772 in 2021, 808 in 2022 and 783 in 2023), with the exception of 2024, when the number of cases closed (862) was linked to the need to close a significant number of cases before the departure of the judges who had reached the end of their term of office. The average duration of proceedings was 16.7 months, all types of cases combined, compared with 17.7 months a year earlier. The decrease concerns all types of cases: from 17.2 to 16.9 months for preliminary ruling cases; from 21.5 to 20 months for direct actions and from 18.4 to 15.1 months for appeals. As a result of the imbalance between the number of cases brought and the number of cases closed, the number of pending cases as at 31 December 2025 increased compared with the previous year. It stood at 1 322 cases, compared with 1 207 a year earlier. General activity of the Court of Justice: cases brought, cases closed, and pending cases (2021-2025)

1 113 1 111 1 149 1 207 1 322 References for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice from the courts of the Member States (2025) BE BG CZ DK DE EE IE EL ES FR HR IT CY LV LT LU HU MT NL AT PL PT RO SI SK FI SE Other Total An analysis of the geographical origin of requests for preliminary rulings referred to the Court of Justice in 2025 shows that they came from almost all the Member States, with a significant number of requests for preliminary rulings being made by the Italian (110 requests) and Polish (63 requests) courts.

The General Court In 2025, the General Court closed the highest number of cases in a calendar year in its history. Despite a record number of cases brought before it, it reduced its backlog of pending cases to its lowest level in 18 years. With 989 cases brought, an increase of 26% on the previous year, the General Court saw the highest level of new cases in its history. Even excluding the 65 requests for a preliminary ruling in the areas transferred to the General Court at the end of 2024, the number of 924 direct actions and special proceedings exceeds that of the last five years. As regards direct actions, there has been a slight decrease in the number of cases brought in relation to intellectual property rights (257 compared to 268 in 2024, that is to say, -4%). There was a significant increase in civil service cases introduced in 2025 (109 compared with 76 in 2024, that is to say, +43%). This area accounts for 11% of all cases brought in 2025. In the area of State aid, the number of cases brought in 2025 (27) – although slightly higher than in 2024 (23) – remains below the high levels experienced by the General Court in the past. Finally, competition cases remain at a level equivalent to that of 2023 and 2024, with twelve new cases in 2025. Litigation concerning restrictive measures continued to fuel the General Court's activity, with 105 new cases brought in 2025 (compared with 63 in 2024). The vast majority of new cases in this area (84 out of 105) concern the series of restrictive measures adopted by the European Union in connection with Russia's war against Ukraine, including those resulting from Belarus' involvement, the situation in Moldova, Iran's military support for Russia and Russia’s destabilising activities targeting the European Union or its Member States. The number of cases relating to economic and monetary policy, an area that includes banking law, continues to decline sharply (12 actions lodged and one case referred back to the General Court by the Court of Justice in 2025, compared with 33 cases lodged in 2024 and 56 in 2023). The total number of cases closed in 2025 is 1 527; if the series of 404 essentially identical cases brought in October 2023 and closed in December 2025 (T-620/23 to T-1023/23) are counted as a single case, the figure still stands at 1 124, an increase of 22% compared with 2024. This is the highest level in the history of the General Court, significantly higher than the previous record of 1 009 cases closed, in 2018. Despite an unprecedented influx of new cases, the General Court has managed to reduce its backlog of pending cases to 1 167, the lowest level since 2007. These efforts have led to a significant reduction in the length of proceedings. While the raw data shows a duration of 18.9 months, the actual duration is 16 months (compared with 18.5 in 2024) if the group of 404 essentially identical cases mentioned above are counted as a single case. General activity of the General Court: cases brought, cases closed, and pending cases (2021-2025)

1 124 1 428 1 474 1 438 1 302 1 167 As regards preliminary rulings, 2025 marks the first full year since the reform of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the European Union, whereby the Court of Justice's preliminary ruling jurisdiction in six specific areas was transferred to the General Court. 65 requests for preliminary rulings were transferred to the General Court in the areas falling within its jurisdiction. Of these, 24 concerned the common system of value added tax (VAT), 18 concerned compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding or of delay or cancellation of transport services, 8 concerned the Customs Code, 7 concerned excise duties, 7 concerned the tariff classification of goods under the Combined Nomenclature and 1 concerned the system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading. The requests for a preliminary ruling came from 17 different Member States. Germany, with 21 references, contributed most to the total, followed by Austria and Poland, with 7 references, and Bulgaria, with 6 references. It should also be noted that a total of 13 supreme courts, from 13 different Member States, made references falling within the jurisdiction of the General Court. Requests for a preliminary ruling transferred to the General Court (2025)

Stay Connected! BE BG DK DE EL ES IT LV LT HU NL AT PL PT RO FI SE Total Unofficial document for media use, not binding on the Court of Justice. Press contact: Jacques René Zammit ✆ (+352) 4303 3355. Case C-682/25, Crossryn (High Court of Justice, London). The high number of references from the Italian courts is largely due to their questions concerning the interpretation of the provisions of Directive 2013/32/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection, and in particular the interpretation of the concept of ‘safe country of origin’. As for the references made by the Polish courts, they mainly concern the interpretation of provisions of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, or Directive 2008/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on credit agreements for consumers and repealing Council Directive 87/102/EEC.