Luxembourg, 04/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - During the solemn hearing organised for the arrival of the new Finnish Judge, Allan Rosas, his predecessor, Leif Sevon, gave his personal impressions in a speech of departure. In his remarks - constructive for some and critical for others - concerning the way the Court functions, he likened the Court to an enormous ship navigating in unknown waters. "Knowing where the Court is heading will promote constructive initiatives from the staff as a whole and diminish the problems generated by the busy, and usually erroneous, rumour-mill that seems to operate all over the building", he said.
The master of a ship, Mr Sevón continued, has to use every possible means of identifying the dangers that lie ahead. He went on to say that "no one would dream of withholding information in order to be able to say with hindsight 'I knew it was wrong'". In his view, the Court's resulting wreckage may be "psychological" but damage to the Court could affect the Community environment and be "disastrous". Some consider the knowledge of the problems and decisions to be taken as a "source of power", while others see sharing knowledge as a way to make more efficient use of the collective knowledge of the institution, he remarked.
Some may see this criticism as a northern way of calling for the administration to be reformed. Others, however, see it as a sign of a deeper sense of unease within the institution on the eve of integrating judges and staff from the future new Member States.