A senior Irish judge says the European Union’s Court of Justice (CJEU) will need to reform before the EU gets any bigger.
Tony Collins has just completed his term as Ireland’s Advocate General to the CJEU. He gave a speech to the IIEA this week on his three-year experience of the job.
The Advocate Generals advise on some of the most high-profile cases that come before the EU’s court.
They must independently weigh up the evidence and publish a legal opinion. Judges are not compelled to rule as the Advocate General has advised, but in the majority of cases, they agree.
“You’re of the court, but not part of the court”, said Tony Collins.
“Sometimes it’s as plain as day. Sometimes you don’t know exactly what went on”, but it is a system which works, he said.
But if the European Court of Justice gets any bigger, he warns it could become unmanageable.
“In my view, the court, terms of size, is close to its limits.”
That means that if the European Union grows further, it will need to change its rules.
Ukraine, Moldova and Albania are amongst the countries trying to join the EU.
“If you have ten new member states joining in the morning, what would happen? Well you would have 30 more judges.
There is no objective reason to have 30 more judges”, said Tony Collins.
Previously it was thought that as the EU expanded, the number of cases at the European Court of Justice would “expand almost exponentially”.
But when eastern European countries joined in 2004, “that didn’t happen”, he said.
Instead, there was more pressure on some parts of the court than others.
“The court and the system in general needs to start thinking about enlargement.”
But he accepts that finding a solution might not be straight forward.
“We cannot have zones of non law in the Western Balkans, nor in Central and Eastern Europe”, he said.
Currently each member state has three judges. Tony Collins suggests there might be a way of splitting their time more effectively.
Before being appointed Advocate General, Tony Collins, was a judge of the General Court of the EU’s Court of Justice.
The Irish government has nominated him to become a judge at Ireland’s Court of Appeal. He is expected to start that job based in Dublin shortly.