Luxembourg, 25/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The President of the European Court of Justice, Gil Rodríguez Iglesias rejected the action initiated by the National Front and MEP Jean-Claude Martinez, which called for suspension of the ruling made by the Court of First Instance on 2 October 2001, a ruling that had resulted in the Technical Group of Independent Members (TDI) of the European Parliament being dissolved.
The National Front does not explain why implementation of the Court of First Instance's ruling would cause it severe and irreparable damage, notes the President of the Court. He went on to add that it would not be possible to re-create the TDI Group just by suspending the Court of First Instance's ruling and that, above all, it would not reactivate the Martinez/de Gaulle court order, said Gil Rodriguez Iglesias.
In this interim order, the president of the Court of First Instance had authorised the TDI Group to continue its work while awaiting the Court's decision.
The National Front considered that, if the order were suspended, it would fall back on the interim order in their favour, meaning that the Group could once more come into existence until the future order of the Court.
The National Front and Jean-Claude Martinez called on the Court to cancel the ruling of 2 October. Proceedings are still at the written stage.
According to observers, the president of the Court was most severe in his wording of the ruling and gave very little hope to MEPs regarding their chances of success. The magistrate considers it highly doubtful that the National Front will gain cancellation of the Court of First Instance's ruling. Reasons for this include the fact that almost all National Front arguments are the same as those already put to the Court of First Instance, and there are no new specific arguments against the order, Gil Rodríguez Iglesias explained.