Dans ses mémoires, Jean Monnet retrace la manière dont Luxembourg fut choisi pour accueillir les institutions de la CECA.

Extract from the Conference of Foreign Ministers, held in Paris on 6 and 7 January 1958, on the provisional location of the institutional seats.

European Parliamentary Assembly Resolution, of 21 June 1958, on the seat of the institutions.

Decision of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on the provisional location of certain institutions and departments of the Communities. In a meeting held on 8 April 1965 in Brussels, the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States decided provisionally to locate the institutions and other bodies of the European Communities in Strasbourg, Brussels and Luxembourg.

On 9 January 1973, Pierre Werner, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, presided over the inauguration ceremony of the new building of the Court of Justice of the European Communities located on the Kirchberg Plateau in Luxembourg. In his speech, he emphasises the solidity of the 'edifice of judicial decisions' that the Court has constructed during its twenty years of existence.

Speech given by Robert Lecourt, President of the Court of Justice of the European Communities from 1967 to 1976, on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of the new law court building on the Kirchberg Plateau, Luxembourg, held on 9 January 1973. Lecourt uses his analysis of the conditions of the building's contract of lease, concluded between Luxembourg and the Court of Justice, as an opportunity to explore the interior of the building and describe the works of art which can be found there.

Decision of 12 December 1992 taken by common agreement between the representatives of the governments of the Member States on the location of the seats of the institutions and of certain bodies and departments of the European Communities.

Protocol annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaties establishing the European Community, the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community by the Treaty of Amsterdam of 2 October 1997.

The ‘Villa Vauban’ in Luxembourg, seat of the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community from 1952 to 1959.

In 1953, the premises of the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community, located in the 'Villa Vauban', Luxembourg, prove to be too cramped. The President of the Court, Massimo Pilotti, insistently calls upon the President of the Council of Ministers, Jean-Marie Louvel, to take a decision on this subject.

In 1959, the Court of Justice of the European Communities was based in a building located on rue de la Côte d'Eich, Luxembourg, until the 'Palais' of the Court was constructed in 1972 on the Kirchberg plateau.

Photo of a model of the Palais Building of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, taken in 1964.

The first building of the Court of Justice of the European Communities in its new location on the Kirchberg Plateau, Luxembourg. The Palais Building of the Court of Justice, completed in late 1972, was the first building of a European institution which has its seat in Luxembourg to be built on the Plateau.

Aerial view of the buildings of the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities on the Kirchberg Plateau, Luxembourg. In the middle distance, in the centre of the photo, is the ‘Palais' of the Court of Justice. In the foreground are its annexes. From right to left, in order of construction, are the Erasmus Building, opened on 5 October 1988, the Thomas More Building, opened on 19 February 1993, and the C Building, opened on 15 September 1994.

View of ‘Annexe C’ and one of the two towers forming part of the new buildings of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

On 3 December 2002, at the ceremony for the laying of a foundation stone at the extension to the Court of Justice of the European Communities on the Kirchberg Plateau, coinciding with the institution’s 50th anniversary, the Luxembourg newspaper Le Quotidien gives an account of the history of the Court’s buildings in the Luxembourg capital and outlines the future developments planned for the site.

In an interview granted to the CVCE in November 2003, Pierre Pescatore, Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Communities from 1967 to 1985, regrets that Luxembourg has not derived greater benefit from the Court’s establishment in the Grand Duchy.