Spain is the European Union member state which had most court proceedings opened against it in 2019 by Brussels, six in total. In the last five years, Spain has accumulated 20 such cases in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to maintain its European legal obligations, and has been convicted 9 times.
On the other hand, Spain is the third ranked state in the EU in terms of the number of questions it asked to the ECJ in 2019. Specifically, Spain submitted 64 questions to the Luxembourg-based court, behind only Italy (70 questions) and Germany (114).
This information is included in the annual report of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published this Friday, which includes the ruling in the Oriol Junqueras case among the most significant EU resolutions of an institutional character in 2019.
The CJEU's two courts, the European Court of Justice and the General Court registered record breaking numbers of new cases last year: a total of 1,905, divided more or less evenly between the two courts.
The President of the CJEU, Koen Lenaerts, acknowledges that concern in the EU about "freedom, democracy and the rule of law" has or will in the future have "a direct impact on the cases presented" in Luxembourg. Issues such as Brexit, climate change and the migration crisis will also influence the type of cases the court hears.
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