Franklin Dehousse, a judge in the European General Court, which acts as a constitute to the ECJ, says the recent efforts to increase the number of judges from 12 to 28 has been disastrous for the operational nature of the ECJ.
The report, co-written by Dehousse and legal assistant Benedetta Marsicola, and published by the Egmont Royal Institution for International Relations, said the expansion of judges in the court was "manifestly excessive," and "a great example of a purely mechanical vision of public service reform."
Retweeted robert madelin (@eurohumph):Important long read on tortuous process for growth of Luxembourg Court. H/t @Politico. https://t.co/ofADHA47wW
Posted by Egmont — Royal Institute for International Relations on Monday, April 4, 2016
While the reforms were designed to address the backlog in cases at the Luxembourg-based court, Dehousse said this hadn't been achieved, before noting that "no one in the EU institutions seemed to care".
"In general, the benefits of such an approach are strongly overestimated, and its costs strongly underestimated," he wrote.
Dehousse wrote that the weakness of the reform was that "it creates too many top jobs while at the same time promising to reduce the second and third tier of personnel in the cabinets".
As a result he said, "judges risk ending up in fact being paid highly to perform tasks that could be as easily (and less expensively) performed by less qualified personnel.
"This is hardly an efficient — or an economical — strategy," he added.
Questions of Independence Raised
On top of the financial and practical concerns, Dehousse said the reforms, which will see the inclusion of one judge from all 28 member states, would also lead to EU countries acting out of self interest, which would ultimately weaken the court's independence.
"Equality of the member states in the appointment of judges has become the keystone of the system, the independent appointment process for the nomination of judges having been abolished."
Concerns have also been raised about the increased powers attributed to the ECJ as a result of the reforms, with the issue a matter of hot debate as many politicians look to wrestle back powers from Brussels and its institutions.
The report says that the current "very exceptional" situation can lead to an "accumulation of power" that has no equivalent in member states.
"Serious consideration ought to be given to the withdrawal of this exorbitant prerogative. Should it be retained, its exercise must be subject to specific constraint," the report added.
The stinging criticism of the ECJ reforms is substantial given that it is coming from an insider like Dehousse, who has been an ECJ judge since 2003 and a longstanding critic of the changes.
