News

On 26^th May, 2023, the international conference "Cooperation between the European Union and national courts: experience and perspectives" organized by the National Courts Administration took place, bringing together discussions on judicial cooperation and uniformity of law in Europe.

The President of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Koen Lenaerts, Deputy President of the General Court of the European Union Savvas Papasavvas, President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania Danguolė Bublienė and President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania Skirgailė Žalimienė shared their insights at the event.

The President of the CJEU, Koen Lenaerts, emphasized the importance of the preliminary ruling procedure. "It ensures that every citizen of the Union acquires the same provisions of Union law in all member states and thus guarantees everyone's equality before the law," says K. Lenaerts. Koen Lenaerts explained how the CJEU works in general terms: “When a national court is in doubt as to how it should interpret an EU law, it has the right to seek guidance from the Court of Justice of the European Union. The answer is valid not only in the specific case under consideration, but also in all other cases where the same act is applied."

The President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania, Danguolė Bublienė, provided an explanation of the questions on which the judges of the Supreme Court usually turn to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The main areas, according to the President, are public procurement, consumer rights and international private law.

In her presentation, the President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, Skirgailė Žalimienė, singled out the areas for which the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania has sought clarification so far: taxes, consumer rights protection, competition. The President emphasized that the Vilnius District Administrative Court also actively applies for clarifications, which is not a common practice in the European Union.

In the discussion, the judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union Irmantas Jarukaitis presented the areas of application of European Union law, and the judges of the General Court of the European Union Rimvydas Norkus and Virgilijus Valančius presented practical examples of how the Court of Justice of the European Union works and what cases the General Court of the European Union examines.

In the practical discussion, the experts of the conference, Inga Jablonskaitė-Martinaitienė, representative of the Investigations and Documentation Directorate of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and Mantas Stanevičius, representative of the reference service of Judge I. Jarukaitis, shared the best practices of the request for a preliminary ruling. The importance of the preliminary ruling procedure was emphasized more than once at the conference.

The conference participants unanimously asserted that cooperation based on mutual respect and trust is the only way to protect the unity of European Union law and equality before the law.