Seat of the Community jurisdictions


The Court of Justice has had its seat in Luxembourg since it came into being. As provided in the Council Decisions establishing them, the Court of First Instance’s ‘seat shall be at the Court of Justice’ and that of the Civil Service Tribunal ‘shall be at the Court of First Instance’.


At the conference of the founding States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) on 23 July 1952, Luxembourg was chosen as the provisional place of work of the Court of Justice. Its first hearing was held on 28 October 1954.


The Decision taken by the representatives of the governments of the Member States on 8 April 1965, relating to the provisional location of certain Community institutions and services (a Decision adopted on the same date as the Treaty establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities) provided, in Article 3, that ‘The Court of Justice shall remain in Luxembourg’. This Decision was confirmed by the Decision by common accord of the representatives of governments of the Member States at the Edinburgh European Council on 11 and 12 December 1992, relating to the seats of the institutions and certain bodies and departments of the European Communities, Article 1(d) of which provides: ‘The Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance shall have their seats in Luxembourg’.


Article 3, second paragraph, of the 1965 Decision provided that the judicial and quasi-judicial bodies already existing or yet to be set up pursuant to the Treaties or to conventions concluded within the framework of the Communities would be located in Luxembourg, but this paragraph was not reproduced in the 1992 Decision.


A Protocol on the location of the seats of the institutions and of certain bodies and departments of the European Communities and of Europol was appended to the Treaty on European Union and on the Treaties establishing the European Communities by the Treaty of Amsterdam of 2 October 1997. It confirmed the Edinburgh Decision.


In a Declaration appended to the Treaty of Nice of 26 February 2001, the Luxembourg Government undertook, without prejudice to the Decision of 8 April 1965 and the provisions and possibilities contained therein regarding the seats of institutions, bodies and departments to be set up, not to claim the seat of the Boards of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (trade marks and designs), if those Boards were to become judicial panels within the meaning of Article 220 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.


Address:


Court of Justice of the European Communities, Rue du Fort Niedergrünewald, L-2925 Luxembourg;

Court of First Instance, Rue du Fort Niedergrünewald, L-2925 Luxembourg;

Civil Service Tribunal, 35A, Avenue John Fitzgerald Kennedy, L-2925 Luxembourg.

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