27/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - The press service of the Court of Justice of the European Communities has responded to our article on the election of the President of the Court of First Instance, Bo Vesterdorf, at the second round of the ballot (EUROPE of 22 September 2004, p.17), by saying that “the procedural regulations of the Court of First Instance expressly provide that elections to the Presidency of the Court 'take place by secret ballot' (article 7, 3). This means that the information related in the article in question is by no means official by nature and that, as the information source is unknown, the affirmations published can by no means be declared to be in line with the reality of events”. We wish to point out that the fact that President Vesterdorf was re-elected by a small majority at the second round is no secret within the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance. That the judges from the new Member States were able to vote for the president in place, who gave them a (warm) welcome in May, is merely a hypothesis, and was presented as such, and which arises from the science of political behaviour. The election of the President of the Court of First Instance, which takes place every three years, was indeed held by secret ballot. Apart from the interested parties themselves, nobody will ever know which judges tipped the balance in favour of the current president.