EU court rebels denounce ‘wasteful’ hiring of new judges

During an informal hearing of judges of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) at the European Parliament on 28 April 2015 highlighted strong disagreements over a planned reform of the court.

The closed-door meeting in Strasbourg was organised to assess plans to increase the number of judges in the ECJ’s General Court, one of three chambers, from 28 to 56. The legislative process started in 2011.

The increase in judges, set to cost €23 million a year extra, was proposed by ECJ chief Vassilios Skouris on grounds of a higher workload. But the step was opposed by several ECJ judges, who say it would be too expensive and would sink the court 'into the morass of a more complex organisation'.

The president of the General Court Marc Jaeger, the strongest opponent, presented the court judges’ position against the reform to MEPs on the legal affairs committee. Mr Skouris, who had been expected to come, did not turn up. He had previously contested the parliament’s capacity to summon judges.

• Primary Source

Financial Times [Blog], 27.04.15: The 1st rule of ECJ fight club…is about to be broken http://blogs.ft.com/brusselsblog/2015/04/27/the-1st-rule-of-ecj-flight-club-is-about-to-be-broken/

EUObserver, 28.04.15: 28.04.15: MEPs to grill EU judges on court reform https://euobserver.com/justice/128491

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