2004/406/EC,Euratom: Council Decision of 19 April 2004 amending Article 35(1) and (2) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities
Date: 2004-04-19
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Court of Justice of the European Union, EU Accession Treaty, accession to the European Union, official language

29.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 132/3

COUNCIL DECISION

of 19 April 2004

amending Article 35(1) and (2) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities

(2004/406/EC, Euratom)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to Article 64 of the Protocol on the Statute of
the Court of Justice,

In accordance with the procedure referred to in the second
paragraph of Article 245 of
the Treaty establishing the
European Community and the second paragraph of Article
160 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy
Community,

Having regard to the request of the Court of Justice of 3
December 2003,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament of
30 March 2004,

Having regard to the opinion of the Commission of 1 March
2004,

Whereas:

(1) With the entry into force of the Treaty concerning the
accession of
the Republic of
the Czech Republic,
Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia,
the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the
Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic
of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic to the European
Union (1),
languages, namely Czech,
Estonian, Hungarian,
Lithuanian, Maltese,
Latvian,
Polish, Slovak and Slovene should be added to the list of
languages of the case in Article 35(1) of the Rules of
Procedure of the Court of First Instance of the European
Communities.

the new official

(2)

As a result of
jurisdiction in
the new allocation of
respect of direct actions between the Court of Justice
and the Court of First Instance made by the Treaty of
Nice,
the
determination of the language of the case before the
Court of First
is an
institution,

is appropriate to lay down a rule for

Instance where the applicant

it

p. 1), amended on 15 September 1994 (OJ L 249, 24.9.1994,
p. 17), 17 February 1995 (OJ L 44, 28.2.1995, p. 64), 6 July
1995 (OJ L 172, 22.7.1995, p. 3), 12 March 1997 (OJ L 103,
19.4.1997, p. 6, Corrigendum: OJ L 351, 23.12.1997, p. 72), 17
May 1999 (OJ L 135, 29.5.1999, p. 92), 6 December 2000 (OJ
L 322, 19.12.2000, p. 4) and 21 May 2003 (OJ L 147,
14.6.2003, p. 22) are hereby amended as follows:

1. Article 35(1) shall be replaced by the following:

‘The language of a case shall be Czech, Danish, Dutch,
English,
French, German, Greek,
Hungarian,
Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese,
Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish or Swedish.'

Estonian,
Irish,

Finnish,

2.

in Article 35(2):

— the following new point shall be inserted:

‘(a) where the defendant is a Member State or a natural
or legal person having the nationality of a Member
State, the language of the case shall be the official
language of that State; where that State has more
the applicant may
language,
than one official
choose between them;'

— former points (a) and (b) shall become (b) and (c);

— in point (c), the words ‘under (a)' shall be replaced by

‘under (b)'.

Article 2

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

The Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance of the
European Communities of 2 May 1991 (OJ L 136, 30.5.1991,

(1) OJ L 236, 23.9.2003, p. 17.

Point (1) of Article 1 shall enter into force at the same time as
the Treaty concerning the accession of the Czech Republic, the
Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of
Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the
Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of
Slovenia and the Slovak Republic to the European Union. Point
2 of Article 1 shall enter into force on the first day of the
second month following the publication of this Decision.

L 132/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

29.4.2004

The texts of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance in Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak and Slovene shall be adopted after the entry into force of the Treaty
referred to in the first subparagraph.

Done at Brussels, 19 April 2004.

For the Council

The President

B. COWEN