The Legal Service alone is empowered to represent the Commission in the Court of Justice of the European Union and the EFTA Court, before the WTO and other arbitration tribunals, as well as in any other court, national or international. This represents more than 1200 cases a year. In over 1000 cases the Commission intervenes in front of the Court of Justice or the General Court and that includes 630 preliminary rulings. The Commission may:act as plaintiff, as in the case of an infringement of EU law by a Member Stateact as defendant, as in the case of an action for annulment of one of its decisionsintervene in actions brought against another institution.Representing the Commission as guardian of the Treaties, the Legal Service routinely intervenes as an amicus curiae (a “friend of the court” – similar to an expert witness giving a court the benefit of his advice) in preliminary ruling cases.In the Court of Justice of the EU the Commission agents must present their written and oral statements in the language of the case. To meet this requirement, the Legal Service employs lawyers from all the Member States. In this way it pools knowledge of all the national legal systems and all the official languages.Apart from its own agents, the Legal Service calls on the services of outside lawyers where specific expertise or legal knowledge is considered necessary to represent the Commission in the EU context or in national courts.
