European Union: Court of Justice of the European Union
European Union: Court of Justice of the European Union
To ensure that the law is enforced, understood and uniformly applied in all Member States, a judicial institution is essential.
That institution is the Court of Justice of the European Communities. It is composed of three courts: the Court of Justice (created in 1952), the Court of First Instance (created in 1988) and the Civil Service Tribunal (created in 2004).
The Court of Justice of the European Communities, together with the national courts, thus constitutes the European Communitys judiciary. The Courts main task is to interpret Community law uniformly and to rule on its validity. It answers questions referred to it by the national courts, which play a vital role, as they apply Community law at local level.
The judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Communities together with the treaties, regulations, directives and decisions make up Community law. Website: curia.europa.eu/en/
Council Directive 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents and, in particular, Article 5(2) and Article 11(1) thereof do not preclude national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which imposes on third-country nationals who already possess long-term resident status the obligation to pass a civic integration examination, under pain of a fine, provided that the means of implementing that obligation are not liable to jeopardise the achievement of the objectives pursued by that directive, which it is for the referring court to determine. Whether the long-term resident status was acquired before or after the obligation to pass a civic integration examination was imposed is irrelevant in that respect.